Sphericus
by Allekha
Summary: AU What if Sphericus, the planet the Shee left Albia for, was what we call... Earth?
1. Chapter 1

Somewhere in the United States, there sat an array of receivers.

Somewhere within that array, sat a human. He was one of those who listen to sounds from space, wondering whether other intelligent life exists within the universe.

One day, he got a message. He wasn't the only one.

Somewhere else in the United States, there was a house.

Somewhere within that house, sat a girl. Next to her was a radio.

One day, she heard a message.

Myra sat in her living room. On the table in front of her was a laptop, and next to it was a notebook and a pen. Currently, the pen was in Myra's hand, moving rapidly back and forth across a page of the notebook.

Myra finished her notes. She liked to record everything that happened during her Creatures 3 and DS wolfing runs, but found it too slow to type. Her eyes turned back to the screen. A new norn had hatched, and the autonamer called him Fluffy. She jotted the hatching down.

After a while, Myra grew bored. So she turned on the radio.

The music went on for quite a time. Just as she was finishing writing down a death, static interrupted one of Beethoven's symphonies (Myra could never remember which one was which.)

The game was paused.

Sure that those were _voices_ in the static, Myra listened very closely. Suddenly, a voice came through, clear as glass.

"This is the Shee Ark 2, arriving from Albia. If this message is heard by intelligent beings, please respond by the time of one planet rotation." The music resumed. Myra stared dumbly at her norns for a moment, before leaping up and dashing for the phone.

* * *

"Was that some kind of joke?" she demanded, finally having gotten the station's number.

"I'm sorry, miss, but - "

**"Was it a joke or not?"**

"No, I'm afraid - "

"Thank you, thank you!" The phone clicked, and Myra gave a scream of joy. The Shee might be real!

Meanwhile, the man sat stunned.

He'd finally gotten his message.


	2. Chapter 2

"Who the message is from and how it should be responded to - and even if we should respond - is still unknown. Anyone with information is asked to call one of our toll-free..." _Click._ The TV muted. Myra glared at it for a moment, then turned her attention to the laptop in front of her.

The message from the Shee had apparently also been heard from televisions, and the Creatures forums were much more active than they usually were. Even if people had not heard it themselves, it was all over news headlines across the world, and more people were logging on every minute. There were even people from outside the community that were just curious about the message and had somehow found them. Such was the magic of the Internet.

Turning again, Myra once more dialed one of the numbers for the news station, exactly as she had been doing for the past hour now. Why did they advertise such a thing and then not have enough people to deal with everyone who would call? They did not even put her on hold, just gave her an extremely annoying busy signal. From what she had read on the chat and forums, other people were having trouble, too. Some people _had_ gotten an answer, so at least some places were getting decent information. Myra drummed her fingers on the table as she waited for the phone to finish ringing and start beeping.

This time, however, her call went through.

"Hello, you have information?" Sighing frustratedly, Myra nodded, remembered that it was impossible to see nods on a phone, and replied, "Yes."

"Alright, tell me what you know."

Myra hesitated a bit, unsure how to start.

"Well... firstly, the... people... who sent it are called the Shee. S-h-e-e. Like the things in Irish mythology. Unless it's hoaxers... hope not. Anyway, the Shee aren't humans, they're another species. I know about them from a game series called Creatures..."

Myra went on to describe the Norns, Ettins, and Grendels, Albia and the Ark, the Capillata, and the Shee.

"Lotsa info you have there. What do you think about a response?"

"We should tell them they can land, and are invited to tea and cookies."

"Er, alright. Thank you miss."

_Click._ The phone turned off.

Myra smiled to herself and went back to the forums. There were already many more messages for her to read. Had they ever been this busy? Not as far as she could remember, and it was hard to think that they had ever had so much activity.

'Add one more station to the list,' she thought to herself as she posted to the 'Who else is calling?' thread. Then she switched back over to the 'Is this a hoax?' thread, reading the arguments. Most people seemed in agreement that it was far too complex to have been faked, although nobody had any serious explanation for how the Shee were real. There was joking, of course, people saying that the creators were Shee or had been in contact with them. Myra rolled her eyes after what seemed like the fiftieth reply saying that and started ignoring those posts.

She stayed up later than she should have, but what was sleep when you had something like _this_, entities from a _game_ appearing in real life?


	3. Chapter 3

Putting the comb down, Myra stared at the mirror for a moment, thinking about the past day. 

Apparently, some person had sent a response to the Shee. Myra was clueless as to what happened next, but she had heard that some sort of meeting had been arranged.

'Well, I'll find out in the morning,' she thought, and went to bed.

* * *

Naturally, the newspaper printed the story on the front page. **'Aliens contact Earth!'** screamed the headline. Myra read the article as she ate her toast. 'Something about them landing,' she noticed. 'Wait, are they going to land here on Earth?' 

Her father glanced at the article and shook his hand, muttering something about pranksters and lies.

"Myra, have you read this interesting article? Seems like something you be interested in. Mentions that game you're always playing, Creatures."

"Read it, Mom. And the part that talks about the message is true. I heard it myself."

Her parents look a bit surprised, but she ignored them and gathered her backpack.

"I'm off to school now, bye!"

* * *

All day long, Myra was distracted from her classes by the thought of Shee and Creatures. Through biology, she wondered whether Norns were mammals. During Computers, she wished she was playing Creatures DS. And during Art, she sketched little Norns playing in the C1 garden. 

Finally though, school was over and she could go home.

Kicking off her shoes, she yelled, "I'm home!" into the house. She raced up the stairs to her room, and turned on her laptop. Soon, she was reading over the forums again, and checking out news sites.

"Myra! Dinner!" Glancing at the clock, she realized it was now 5:30. 'I really lost track of time,' she thought.

"Coming Mom!"

* * *

As soon as she woke up the next morning, Myra raced down the stairs and out the front door. She picked up the newspaper, tore off the rubber band around it, and hurriedly skimmed the front page. 

'So they're going to land... here on Earth. Wow. And not too far from here, actually. Am I dreaming? Because if I am, now would be a great time to wake up.' She pinched herself. 'Nope, not dreaming. Hey, it says that you can get special permission to greet the Shee as they land. Wonder if I could try for it...'

Walking back into the house, she set the paper on the table and made herself some scrambled eggs. A few minutes later, her mother walked into the kitchen.

"Good morning, Myra"

"Morning, Mom. Check out the newspaper."

Her mother read over the article and shook her head. "The world is getting crazier every year..."

"What's happened now?"

"Oh, those aliens that the news was all over yesterday are going to land. Not far from here, either."

Her father sighed and shook his head. Myra paused in eating her food.

"Want some scrambled eggs?"

* * *

Holding her breath, she locked eyes with the official-looking lady in front of her. The lady narrowed her eyes, but Myra still looked straight into them. 

"So you wish to watch as these aliens land?"

"And meet one of them, if it is permitted, miss."

The lady snorted, and handed her a pile of forms and a mechanical pencil. "Fill these out. And be honest."

Myra sat down at a nearby table, and began filling out the forms. When she finished, she handed them into the lady. They were skimmed over, and she was handed a card with an official-looking stamp and her name on it.

"Show that card to the security around the field and they'll let you in. And here's a map that should show you how to get there. Don't bring any food, liquids, or anything magnetic with you. Handheld game systems and books are fine. Now off with you."

Myra quickly scurried out of the building and into her mom's waiting car.

* * *

Hardly able to contain her excitement, Myra looked in the mirror the next morning. Her long brown hair, which normally fell to the bottom of her ribcage, was tied back in a neat ponytail. She had on a sky-blue t-shirt and a brown skirt. Slipping on her sneakers, she grabbed a couple of her favorite books and dashed down the stairs. 

"Ready to go, Mom!" she called.

"Just a minute, I'll be right there!"

Impatiently hopping from foot to foot, she waited for her mom to be ready. Soon enough, they were in the car and on their way.

"Now, when we get there, be careful. Stay aware of your surroundings at all times," her mother cautioned.

"I will."

"And have fun."

"I sure hope I will."

* * *

After getting past security, Myra found a nice quiet spot to read while she waited. 

A few hours later, the officials were getting everyone organized, telling them where to stand and ordering that all electronic devices be turned off.

After a few minutes of staring at the cloudy sky, her ears picked up a quiet sound. The sound of engines? It grew louder and louder, until there was no mistaking its origin. Suddenly, a Shee Ark crashed through the clouds.

Myra held her breath. Would it crash? But at the last second, it stopped, hovering over the surface of the ground. A few seconds later, another one came, and then one more.

For a minute, the ships stayed closed, before a hatch on the bottom of each opened up, and a ramp smoothly extended to the grass. A Shee walked down the ramp of the first Ark.

They looked much like the statue in C2 - but not quite. Their skin was very pale, with just a hint of a bluish glow. Their heads were not quite as elongated as the statue's, and wider, more human-looking. Their eyes certainly looked human-like, although they all had a brown or black iris. They didn't have the headdress on their heads, but they did have hair - silver, blond, or, for a few, brown. They were also tall.

Shee of various ages spilled out onto the grass, all dressed in white robes. Most were staring intently at the humans, but a few directed their attention at the sky, grass, or the fact that this planet had three-dimensional space. Unlike Albia, which prevented much travel side-to-side, this planet let creature go any direction they chose.

Finally, one man stepped forward. He looked to Myra like he was the organizer of this whole thing.

"Welcome to Earth."


	4. Chapter 4

Myra felt almost dizzy with excitement. Here were the Shee - not statues, not a mysterious part of the lore of a game, but real, living, breathing, tangible creatures.

The leader (Myra presumed) stepped forward several feet. "We bring greetings from Albia." He narrowed his eyes. "Earth. Is that what you call this planet?"

The official spoke again. "Yes, it is. Why?"

"Ever since our astronomers found this planet and discovered it was spherical, we have been calling it Sphericus."

Now the official looked confused. "Aren't all planets spherical?"

"Not in our galaxy, and not Albia. They are disk-shaped. We lived on the edges." He gestured towards another Shee, who came forward with a small device in her palm. She (Or at least it looked like a she, with long silver hair and a slightly different shape) pushed a button on it, and a small hologram model appeared in the air above it. "This is Albia."

People crowded forward for even a small glimpse. Myra didn't bother, knowing that she was too short to hope for even the smallest glance. Besides, she already knew what Albia looked like. Instead, she directed her gaze to the rest of the Shee. It looked like there was a scattering of ages - a few even looked about her age. If the Shee lived on a similar timescale...

By now, the official and the leader had walked off to talk somewhere more private, and the rest of the Shee and humans stared at each other uneasily. Finally, Myra stepped forward. She could feel everybody behind her holding his or her breath, as she took another step, and then another. That seemed to be enough to break the tension, and the humans walked forward to meet the Shee.

Looking around at all the humans around her talking almost comfortably to the Shee, Myra felt a bit lost. Then a female Shee, who was about as tall as her, ran up to her.

"Hello. Do you have a name? I am Nacia (Nah-see-uh)." She had black eyes, and her straight silver hair fell to about her knees.

"Yes... it's Myra. Um, can we go somewhere else? It's a bit crowded around here." Nacia replied by dragging her off a nice distance from the crowd.

"So what is Sp - Earth like? It is so different from Albia! You can move three ways as far as you wish!" Nacia looked very excited about being in three dimensions.

"Well... the sky is blue, most of the planet is covered in water, and us humans divide ourselves up into things called 'countries'." For the next half hour or so, Myra talked about life on Earth. Then for another half hour, Nacia shared life on Albia.

"When the Council decided to leave Albia for Sphericus, they built five huge ships to carry us all through space. The ships went through a lot of testing. Some parts had to be adjusted several times - for example, the ettins kept complaining they were too cold, so we threw in a desert to keep them warm, with a volcano. Then one day, we packed up and left. The ships kept us and our equipment in suspended animation. One of the ships was faulty though, so it was abandoned. Another one was lost to the Banshee. They couldn't keep up with us, though." She shuddered. "Thank the old gods, too. I've heard stories about them - Shee who spliced themselves with Grendels!"

Myra suddenly saw an official coming over towards them, and he didn't exactly look happy. The two quietly waited for him to reach them.

Glaring at Myra, he told her she had to leave. Slowly, she stood up, saying good-bye to Nacia. After she went about twenty feet towards the exit, she turned around. The man grabbed Nacia and dragged her off, as she struggled and protested. Myra wanted to stop him somehow, but she was too scared. Instead, she turned around and left for home.

* * *

A/N: I was going to make it longer, honest, but I thought this was a perfect place to leave it.

* * *


	5. Chapter 5

"Did you have fun, Myra?"

She sighed and continued staring out the window. "Yeah."

Her mother glanced back worriedly. "You don't sound terribly happy."

Myra sighed again. "It's just... I'm worried about what they might do to the Shee."

"Worried?"

"Before I left, I talked to one called Nacia. I looked back after I started to leave, and one of the officials was pulling her somewhere, and she was struggling to get out of his grip. The Shee are smart, I guess, though they sorta lack a lot of common sense, but they can't be too terribly strong." Another sigh. "I hope they're alright."

* * *

"YOU CAN'T DO THIS TO US!" 

Nacia's shout was drowned out by the protests of the Shee around her. Trapped in cage in a laboratory as if she was a norn, shouting was all she could do.

"YOU HAVE NO RIGHT! LET US GO, HUMANS!"

With her throat raw from screeching, she finally gave up. She slumped in a corner of her cage, which barely gave her room enough to lie down. Eventually, the humans left.

Some of the younger Shee cried, and were quickly hushed by the older ones. Nacia ignored everything around her. For awhile, she just let the rage boil within her.

'Stupid humans, they must all think that they are better than us! That an be the only reason they wanted us to land! For experiments.' Then she remembered Myra. 'She must not have seen them drag me off... if she knew, what would she think?'

Somehow, it did not seem as if she would have agreed with these humans.

* * *

Upon reading the newspaper in the morning, Myra almost threw a fit. 

"They're treating them like lab rats? That's not right! Is it even legal? It can't be! Oh, _please_ let it not be legal." Angry, but not able to do anything, she stormed up to her room, and spent the rest of the morning looking at news articles and various Creatures forums.

Later, she slipped on her shoes and went to the park. The warm air mixed with the spring breeze, making it a perfect temperature. The swings were empty, and Myra made her way over to them. She did not feel like climbing or running. Those activities took attention. Swinging, on the other hand, let her think.

'Is there anything at all I can do? After all, I'm just a kid. Why would the government listen to my protests?' Another thought suddenly entered her head. 'I hope Nacia doesn't hate me for this. It's not my fault she's trapped. I didn't want that to happen.' Sighing, she continued swinging.

* * *

The next day, Nacia was rudely awakened by a scientist dragging her out of her cage. She glared at the scientist. This one seemed a bit different in body structure than the ones that had been in the room last night, more like Nacia. 

"You are a female of your species, correct?" she asked.

"Yes, I am." The scientist paused for a moment in her speech. "I assume the same is for you?"

"Correct, _human. _Now why are we here?"

"The government wants us to study you. It doesn't mean I want to do so, and it doesn't mean that my colleagues want to do so." Pause. "You're so human-looking, it feels like I'm pulling my own daughter along. If she had long silver hair, that is."

They walked in silence for a few minutes, occasionally passing a human-scientist.

"Why do you humans speak so oddly? You shorten words, and the tone of voice is odd."

The female-human snorted in laughter. "And you speak so formally. It's just the way we talk. We're here."

She opened the door they had stopped at and pushed the Shee inside. The room was white and well-lit, which caused both of their eyes to narrow.

"Sit here," the scientist instructed, gesturing towards a table. "First, we're going to study your anatomy, starting with your bones."

Nacia carefully walked over and then sat on the table, not trusting the humans. "You are going to dissect me?"

"No! I mean, no. I'll be taking an x-ray."

As the female-human-scientist started preparing for the x-ray, saying words and pushing buttons, Nacia's mind wandered off to Myra. 'Does she not have a choice either?'

* * *

A/N: Wow, an update that didn't take forever. Moving along and seeing what has happened to Nacia. 


	6. Chapter 6

Myra walked along the lonely path. This place was not very welcoming; the path was concrete, surrounded by freshly-churned dirt. It had been explained to her that the center was planting new grass, but the thought did little to help.

The guards at the entrance guided her down many dark hallways, lit only by bluish lights. Once in a while, they would pass a scientist. Myra didn't look at them.

Finally, they stopped in front of an unlabeled door. The guards pushed her in and told her to wait. The room was too white, too bright. Myra squinted her eyes and sat down on a chair. Several minutes passed by, and she fiddled with the daffodil she'd brought. It was a bright yellow color with an orange center petal.

The door opened again and another scientist led Nacia in.

"Myra!" the higher-pitched voice exclaimed.

"Nacia! Are you alright?" Myra ran forward to hug the Shee briefly.

"I suppose I am, though these humans test me. They do not hurt me, at least."

"What sort of tests?" Concern came into Myra's eyes, and she glanced at the scientist.

"Can you rephrase that? I do not know many of you human ways of speech."

"Oh... what tests have they done on you?"

"X-rays, blood tests, tests such as those. Physical tests."

"And tomorrow," interrupted the scientist, "the higher-ups want me to start mental testing."

Myra glared. "Why are you doing this to them? It's like testing on humans, almost!"

The scientist glared back. "I never said I had a choice." She glanced at her watch. "You have three more minutes."

Myra turned back to Nacia. "I brought you something," she said softly. She held up the daffodil. "It's an earth flower. It's called a daffodil." She tore off most of the stem and threw it to the side. Her hands tucked most of the remaining stem into the untangled hair, so that the flower hung above Nacia's ear. "Why is your hair so untangled?"

"I have little do to but comb it out or think or sleep between tests." Her hand reached up and touched the flower. "Thank you."

"Time's up. You have to leave now." The guards escorted Myra out again, as Nacia was led away.

* * *

"There has to be something I can do, something..." Myra whispered to herself, pacing in her room. 

This puzzle was starting to agitate her. She'd posted on the forums for ideas, but no replies as of five minutes ago. Well, the scientists seemed not to want to experiment on the Shee. Grabbing a piece of paper, Myra wrote that down. It was a start, anyway.

Next she wrote down 'Shee human-like human illegal to experiment on without permission (I think)'.

Five minutes later, she checked the forums again. Some had posted, "Check and see if it's against the law if the being that's experiment upon is... idk, human-like I guess."

Myra started to do a search on Google, but her mom called her down to dinner before she could hit the enter key.

* * *

'So not all humans are like the 'higher-ups'' Myra thought as she slumped in her cage. She hoped that at least the next tests would be something interesting, such as the various mental tests the Shee had given to norns, back on Albia. Of course, the norns were not always very good at the tests, usually worse than the ettins. Then again, norns been designed to look cute and serve tea, not make cookies and help with machinery. 

At the thought of norns and ettins, Nacia sighed. She had always liked working with the little things, trying to make them more intelligent by selective breeding and genetic tinkering. Sometimes she would try to make a new fur pattern for a norn... which usually backfired, unfortunately.

Nacia sighed again, sinking into memories...

* * *

Myra danced happily around her room. She had done it!

'Experimentation on human-like non-human animals is strictly forbidden without proper licensing. Furthermore, experimenting without permission on actual humans is punishable with heavy fines and jail time. Also, on the off chance that human-like sentient aliens land on Earth, the same goes for them.'

The Shee fell under that category. Nacia bookmarked the page, copy/pasted the text into a txt file and saved it, and then got ready for bed.

She had a mission to do. After school of course.

* * *

A/N: If I update more often, can you live with shorter chapters?

Also, I know laws don't read like that in real life. Oh well.


	7. Chapter 7

Myra painstakingly wrote out the letter in her very best cursive. By the time she was done and had signed the bottom, her hand was aching. 'It's for Nacia,' she reminded herself. 'For her and all the other Shee.' The next morning she sent it off in the mail. Several days later, she still had no reply.

"These things take time," her mother told her. "The people who recieve these things have a lot of mail to go through and are very busy."

Still, Myra sprinted out to the mailbox every time she heard the mail truck come.

* * *

Nacia was incredibly bored. The intellectual tests on her mind were so_ easy_.

Today, the female-human-scientist (as Nacia called her) said that this was a test of 'common sense'. Nacia wondered what those words meant. Different scenarios were read to her, and she was asked how she would respond or act. As the answers were given, the look on the scientists' faces changed to complete surprise. She wondered why.

"If you saw someone who was having trouble carrying something very heavy, how would you help?"

"I suppose I would find a thing that would make the load lighter and easier to lift."

The next one was hesitantly read. "If you were walking along a river, and you saw someone on fire, what would you do?"

Nacia thought a moment. "I'd design a machine to carry water from the river to the one on fire."

Jaws dropped. "That's enough for now," said the female-human-scientist. She led Nacia back to her cage.

'Boring, stupid cage again. Do these humans truly want me to go crazy?'

* * *

The next day (perhaps, it was almost impossible to tell the days apart where she was) a male-human in a suit walked in. He pressed a button on the wall, and all the cages slid into the floor, leaving all the Shee standing or sitting around, confused.

"You are all free to go," said the male-human. The Shee just stared at him. He sighed.

"Thanks to one of the children who met one of you, we discovered that it is against the law to experiment on you, and the higher-ups had no choice but to let you go."

"What is the child's name?" asked Nacia, suddenly wondering.

"I believe it was Myra."

As she stepped into the sunlight, Nacia could have sworn she heard the flowers sing.

(This was impossible, of course, but she made a note to investigate whether vocal cords could be grafted onto blooming plants.)

* * *

Myra stared at the paper.

Then she stared some more.

She stared even more.

"Myra, are you all right? You've been staring at the same page of the newspaper for the last ten minuntes," said her dad.

In reply, she held up the front page, with the headline, 'Local girl writes letter, frees Shee'.


	8. Chapter 8

Her parents stared at her for a good few minutes, before pouring over the paper.

"Oh my gosh, Myra!_ You_ did this? That's wonderful, dear!" her mother exclaimed.

"Good job, Myra." Her father was a bit more calm.

Hearing a knock at the door, Myra edged away from her parents and slipped out across the cold kitchen tile. Stepping across the almost fluffy brown carpet that lined the frontway, she opened the door.

Her jaw dropped. Her eyes stared. Her brain, for a moment, stopped working.

"Nacia?!"

* * *

According to the official that had accompanied Nacia, the Shee had decided to stay on Earth. All were living with humans, at least until they knew enough and could survive the human world on their own. 

"…and since your daughter seemed to take to the Shee, especially this one, I was wondering whether you would be against arrangements being made for her to stay here."

Myra piped up, "I have a question, sir."

"Yes?"

"Do you always talk in such long sentences?"

There was several seconds of silence, before Nacia started giggling. Myra just smiled.

The official just stared at the two girls sitting on the blue, pink-flowered couch.

"We'll have to think about it… but if Myra isn't against it-" Myra's mother started.

"Of course not!"

"-then we will definitely consider it," her father finished.

"I will come back in three days for your answer. Thank you for your time, misses, sir. Come along, Shee."

Nacia followed reluctantly. "My name is not 'Shee'. It is Nacia."

* * *

Her parents agreed to try it, as long as Myra took responsibility to teach and watch out for Nacia. 

"I'm really grateful and all, really, but just out of curiosity, why?" Myra had asked.

"It will help you learn how to be responsible for someone, which is important if you ever want children. It will help teach you how to think from another point of view, which is an important skill. It will help you learn how to teach someone things, which is a very useful skill. Also, it is a reward for being brave enough and confident enough and smart enough to write a letter to government officials, for a good, moral purpose," her father had answered.

Myra had nodded and scurried up to her room to write that down.

* * *

A/N: Short chapter, took way too long to get out and post. I'm sorry, I really am. I just seem to not have felt like writing much lately, though once I started this I kind of just got going. ANYway, next chapter is when Nacia actually moves in. Crossing fingers it doesn't take as long as this one. 


	9. Chapter 9

A few days later, Myra was leading Nacia upstairs. The Shee had been carrying a surprisingly light bag, which she had said was full of bits of machinery and experiments.

"It will take a long while though before the damage to them is repaired," she had worried.

They stopped in front of the door to Myra's room. Pulling open the door, Myra gestured for the Shee to walk in.

Seating herself down on the bed, she looked around. So this was what a human's bedroom looked like.

"Hey, Nacia? Is there something wrong with your eyes? They had white in them before, but now they're completely black…"

"No, that is healthy. We were not in the best of health on the ship, even those of us who were that way to start with."

"Huh?"

"You saw the others with the brown hair? An experiment went wrong. Besides changing their hair color, it made them much weaker."

"Ah."

Silence reigned for a few minutes. Slowly, Myra sat down beside the Shee.

"Do you miss Albia?"

Black eyes whipped around to stare at her in a mix of confusion and shock. "What do you mean?'

"Do you ever wish that you were back there, living like you used to?" Myra said carefully. "Are you ever homesick?"

"I do not know what 'homesickness' is," Nacia said disdainfully. "However, I have, on occasion, desired to be back on Albia."

"…and you couldn't have just said 'yes'?"

"Hm?"

"Nevermind. Hey, why don't we go for a walk? I'd like to show you around the area, if you're going to stay, for a while at least."

* * *

First, they went around the neighborhood, with Nacia asking many questions ("Why are those humans riding grounded hoverboards in the middle of a vehicle transport lane?") and Myra answering them ("Those are called skateboards. And they're riding them in the middle of a _road_ – which is really stupid, by the way.") and pointing out various landmarks.

Next, they went to the park, one of Myra's favorite places. There was a decent-sized field, a nice playground with interesting equipment, and, at the far end, a plot of forest. Through the whole place wound an asphalt path.

Nacia found all of this fascinating. While she went off to investigate the play equipment, Myra sat down on a swing. It was so relaxing to feel the breeze and let her thoughts wander.

Hearing voices from the direction that Nacia had gone, she dragged her feet on the ground to slow to a stop. Walking over, she noticed that Nacia was surrounded by some of the boys from school. The Shee did not seem to like them, but was unable to break away.

"Hello," she said casually. "Any particular reason why you're bothering Nacia?"

Several of the boys spun around. "Hello, _Myra_. Why do you care?" the leader sneered.

"She's my friend, idiot. Don't you ever read the newspaper?"

The boy glared. "Reading is for – hey!"

Nacia had tried to take advantage of their distraction by running off in the opposite direction. As the humans around her stared, stunned for a moment, Myra ran after her.

Somehow, the two managed to lost their pursuers. Myra quickly led her friend back home.

* * *

"Who were those boys?" the Shee asked as soon as they were safely inside the house again.

"Oh, just some group of immature brats who take fun from teasing girls."

Nacia considered this for a moment. "What is a 'brat'?"

"Something you don't want to be. Um, let me show you what we know about Albia!"

She tapped the table impatiently as she waited for the computer to come out of hibernation. As soon as it was up, she clicked the icon for 'Creatures 2' and hit the enter key. Nacia stared as the program started up and a world was selected.

"Here's the statue." She moved the screen until the statue was visible. "What is it of?"

"It is made of a combination of-"

"Not what it's made of! What does it depict, I mean."

"Ah. It is an old statue, of one of our gods."

"Oh. That's why it only looks sorta like you. And let me show you the C2 norns…"

For the next hour, she showed Nacia around the C1 and C2 Albias, and the C3 and DS spaceship. The Shee explained some of the things she saw (not always successfully) and made comments about how things could have been done much more efficiently. After that, she showed off another game that she had found that also had to do with genetics, except with flowers.

Myra's mother called them downstairs for dinner. While Myra thought it was delicious, she noticed that Nacia was poking at it very hesitantly. "Try it!" she urged. "You'll have to learn to eat Earth food anyway." When the Shee still seemed to be unconvinced, she got a piece of cheese and a couple of carrots from the refrigerator and gave them to her. They were received better than the other food.

"Albia had cheese and carrots," she explained for her parents.

Her mother frowned slightly, but said nothing. Her father, however did, though not on the subject of food. "We both work," he explained for Nacia's sake, "I at someplace else and my wife here at home, at the computer. My daughter is gone for school. We don't want to leave you at home all day. Would you mind going to the human school? You'd be in the same class as Myra."

"Human school? That sounds very interesting. I would not mind going," Nacia answered.

"All right. We'll get you enrolled tomorrow."

* * *

A/N: Please tell me I didn't scare you away ;-; And I'm sorry for taking sooooooooo long to update. I have a little bit of excuse, though: NaNoWriMo and then finishing the novel. Again, I'm very sorry for taking five months to update. 


	10. Chapter 10

Nervously, Myra walked into the school. Other kids stared at her and her companion. Nacia did not seem to notice their attention, or if she did, she ignored it. She was too busy trying to look in every direction at once.

"So odd..." she whispered under her breath.

She led the Shee to her homeroom classroom. She had already explained how they would move from room to room to attend various classes during the day. They sat down at two desks next to each other and Myra doodled norns in her art notebook while she waited for the class to start. She had expected Nacia to ask more questions, but the Shee was still twisting her head around and looking towards every corner of the room.

After they had listened to the announcements and said the Pledge of Allegiance, (although why they pledged allegiance to a _flag_, Myra had never figured out) her teacher started speaking.

"As all of you seem to have noticed, we have a Shee who will be attending some classes here from now on. Will you please introduce yourself?" he said.

She stood up and said, "My name is Nacia."

Everybody stared at her for a few minutes expectantly before the teacher coughed. "Do you have any hobbies?"

Thankfully, Myra had taught her that a hobby was 'something you enjoy doing that you do when you have 'free' or 'spare' time, which is when you don't have anything else you need to do'. "Genetic engineering," she answered. Everybody except Myra blinked at her in confusion. Myra would not have been surprised if only half of them knew what genetic engineering was.

"And any skills besides, uh, genetic engineering?"

"Computer programming and mechanical design."

More staring. Nacia sat down. Myra sighed and wondered how long the school day would stretch out. She did not even want to begin to think about the whole _week_.

* * *

Their next period was biology. Nacia's eyes had glazed over less than five minutes into the teacher's lecture – which bored Myra as well, but she at least tried to pay attention for another few minutes. Both her and the Shee entertained themselves with looking through their textbooks while the teacher droned on about the organs in cells, which both of them already knew about. After fifteen or so minutes, Nacia raised her hand.

"Yes?" the teacher asked.

"Why is there a disclaimer in the front of these books?"

Myra flipped to the front. Sure enough, there it was: "This textbook contains material on evolution. Evolution is a theory, not a fact, regarding the origin of living things. This material should be approached with an open mind, studied carefully, and critically considered," she read. "That's weird. I thought they only had those in Alabama and Georgia."

"What?!" the teacher exclaimed. She picked up her own copy and frowned. "Please ignore that. I will report this to the principal immediately."

"Why does it make that implication that being a theory is very far from being a fact?" Nacia asked.

"I'll tell you later," Myra said quickly. "What were you saying about the endoplasmic retuiculum, Miss?"

* * *

Computer class. Myra wondered how Nacia would impress the rest of her class now. The two of them sat patiently through the teacher's talk about 'following instructions' so they would not 'mess up the computers and cost us a lot of money'. The class had gotten this talk at the beginning of the school year, but apparently the substitute they had did not know this.

Finally they logged on and followed the teacher's instructions. They were starting to learn Flash today. They teacher showed them how to do a few things and then brought up an example of the programming. Nacia frowned as she studied it and the teacher explained what a couple of the comands meant, pointing to the comments she had made in the code.

Nacia raised her hand. When the she was called on, she asked another question (with likely many more for the day). "Why is this language so inefficient?"

People stared at her. Another girl, firmly labelled in the 'geek' category, did say something. "Well, it isn't as good as, say, Python in my opinion, which I guess isn't a very fair comparison because I suppose they're aimed at doing different things, but I think it's that way because-"

"Be quiet!" the teacher snapped. "Um, Nacia, please keep your comments on the code to yourself."

"But I asked a question," the Shee said, tilting her head slightly in confusion. "I did not state anything."

The teacher ignored her and continued talking.

* * *

History was quiet. Nacia had the sense to not ask why humans did such stupid things or did not seem to learn from all the mistakes it history very well. Lunch came around and they found a table in the corner for themselves.

Well, it _had_ been just the two of them. Now they were surrounded by people asking questions, questions, questions.

"She's a Shee? The things from that game you always babble about?"

"Why do you ask such weird questions in class?"

"You really wrote a letter to free her?"

"How long are you going to be here?"

Myra groaned and buried her hand in her hands. Nacia just looked confused by all the questions.

* * *

A/N: _Yes_ I know that middle schoolers wouldn't learn Flash (I'm homeschooled, not ignorant). Well, I did, but not under 'normal' circumstances, so...

And the 'disclaimer' is an actual disclaimer they put on actual biology books. Sad, isn't it?


	11. Chapter 11

Myra whispered a prayer to any decently merciful deity that may have existed. They were going into _chemistry_ now. She really, really hoped that Nacia would not blow something up. Then again, being a Shee, she would probably be more likely to discover a cure for colds or something.

They ended up being partners. The teacher droned for a few minutes before giving them an experiment... something about how much they had to add of something to something else to get a certain reaction? 'I really should stop zoning out like that.'

Nacia added the precise amount of chemical right away. Most of the rest of the class went by without a problem. Unfortunately, not the_whole_ rest of the class.

They were sitting and waiting for class to end, having already finished the worksheets the teacher had given (maybe it wasn't going to be so bad to have Nacia as her classmate after all). Nacia had started discreetly mixing some chemicals together. The teacher, busy with helping another student, had not noticed, and none of the kids who did were interested in stopping her.

A _BANG_ later, the teacher had noticed. But instead of an explosion or fire, there was just some smoke. And instead of a charred beaker, there was a rock sitting in a perfectly not-charred beaker.

'Well, it isn't a cure for colds, but that's still pretty weird.'

* * *

Gym. PE. Whatever it was called. Somehow Myra had the feeling that Nacia wasn't going to do very well in this class, and it wasn't just because the gym uniform was very different from the Shees' white robes. 

She was, as one of her aunts would say, a twig. She was light, thin, and had little muscle. She was probably agile and could run decently, but was awful as far as anything else went.

First they did the warm-up exercises: push-ups, sit-ups, jumping jacks. Nacia struggled slightly, but kept up. Then came the main event for the day. When Myra remembered, she sudddenly wished that the Shee had come to school _next_ week instead.

They were running a mile today.

"How long is a mile?" Nacia nervously asked.

"Eight times around the edge of the field," Myra answered.

Now the Shee, along with several of their less athletic classmates, was starting to look a little pale at the thought of having to run so far. "Just don't spend all your energy at the beginning and you'll do fine," she tried to comfort them, but it didn't help. She sighed.

A moment later, they were starting. Within a few laps, they had spread out and didn't crowd against each other anymore. Myra did alright – the practice they'd all gotten before now was pretty helpful.

Nacia didn't do nearly as well, but she wasn't last and did not collapse. That was good enough for her.

* * *

English. Possibly the most boring class in the whole school. It was the teacher's fault, because he spoke in a completely monotone voice. Then math, slightly more exciting. 

It was more exciting having a Shee there. The teacher moved quickly through an equation. When he asked if anybody had understood, he got blank stares. Then Nacia raised her hand and pointed out a mistake he had made.

"How would you do it, then?" he asked, handing her the chalk. She drew the chalk over the board, marking it carefully but quickly. The teacher was surprised to see her work so fast with such neat – and right – numbers.

* * *

Finally, _finally_ their last class was over. Exhausted, the pair walked out of the school building. Myra's mother was already waiting for them with her car. They climbed in. 

"So how was your day?" the woman asked.

"Interesting," answered Nacia.

"Tiring," answered Myra.

"That as well," agreed Nacia. "Why did we need to run such a long distance?"

"It's some sort of test, I think. I don't really know."

When they got back home, Myra insisted on doing their homework right away. "Let's start with the math problems," she decided, pulling the worksheet out. "I mean, unless you want to do something else first."

Nacia shook her head, and then looked at the sheet. "Is there a mistake here? These problems are for infants!"

The human stared at the problems. "Infant _Shee_ maybe, but not infant humans."

The other scoffed slightly and quickly went throught the problems. In the same time, Myra only got two done. "How do you do that so fast? Nevermind, it's just because you're really good at math and science stuff, isn't it?"

"Yes, it would be."

Their biology homework was easy, and Myra was good enough with history to help Nacia with it. English was easy – no essay today – and the rest of their homework was worked through quickly. Nacia let Myra copy her math answers, and then they were done.

Then Nacia settled down with a book on some sort of science from the library, and Myra flopped down on her bed with her newest novel. It was nicer reading together than alone, the human decided.

* * *

A/N: Sorry it's short. And lame. And not read-over by someone other than me. (I'll probably update this later betaed.) 


	12. Chapter 12

A/N: Putting this here because it wouldn't fit well after the end. I think I'm going to up the rating to T, since there will likely be some violence in upcoming chapters. Actually, almost certainly.

And because I never mentioned this, this takes place a few years into the future (can't tell, can you?) where people are more accepting and tolerant (one can hope!).

* * *

The internet connection was out. Again. Myra sighed; it had been flickering on and off for the past few days, and it was getting _really_ annoying. The repairman that had come had found nothing wrong. Nacia said that there was some sort of interference. The Shee had been unable to find the source, however.

On the other side of the room, said Shee looked up at Myra's sigh. Seeing that it was the same problem that they had been having for several days, she went back to tinkering with the gadget she held. There was nothing else she could do.

She had not been lying when she said that there was interference. She _had_ been fibbing a bit when she had said that she did not have any ideas about where it was coming from. She did have a suspicion... but it was impossible. The Banshee did not exist...

* * *

_Outside, in a distant field, that night..._

A strange bluish glow would have immediately attracted the attention of anyone around. Perhaps they would have thought that it was a testing center for something dangerous and stayed away. Or maybe they would have walked up to it, curious. It did not matter, though, for there was no one around.

The glow steadily grew stronger and stronger. Up close, one would have seen a swirly pattern. But there was no one around...

The glow and pattern suddenly intensified and became a full Warp portal. Something tumbled through it, then several more somethings. But nobody saw, for there was was still no one around.

One of the somethings did not get up. Instead, it laid still, gasping for air. The other somethings crowded around it, speaking in odd, high-pitched voices. Some spoke Handish. Others, Bibble.

A Shee, intending to use the field to test his newest creature away from prying eyes, heard them. Stepping closer, he saw that the norns and ettins were surrounding another Shee! But the other Shee was not responding. Frowning, the Shee kneeled to get a closer look. He saw a chest rising, but he also saw blood. Quickly, he stumbled up and ran to get a medic's help.

* * *

Nacia had demanded that Myra show her where the building was. The human girl had been surprised – and a little scared – at her insistence, but she ignored it. She had a good reason to want to see this Shee.

The Banshee did not exist. They _could not_ exist. But still...

The Lone Shee (as everyone was calling him) was pale, but he had awakened. He had been asked questions – mostly about the Warp – and then the crowd around him had disappeared. For now, he was alone.

Well, not any longer. Nacia and Myra managed to make their way to his room. He was swathed in bandages and looked awful, but she did not care. She had seen far worse things through her experiments.

Myra stood nervously by the doorway as she walked up to the Lone Shee. "May I ask you one question?" she asked.

The Lone Shee frowned slightly. "There should be reports on what I said about the Warp-"

"It is not about your Warp."

He blinked. "What is your question?"

"Why did you go through your Warp, when you were so badly injured, bringing your norns and ettins with you?"

The Lone Shee's fists tightened their grasp on the sheets momentarily. He did not answer.

"Were there Banshee?"

His head snapped up to look at her. "...yes."

Nacia swore in one of the ancient languages and ran out of the room. Myra barely had time to wave good-bye as she was pulled along again.

* * *

More ancient swears came out of Nacia's mouth as she measured again the interference waves and looked for records of the ones given off by Banshee ships on the Network. Unfortunately, there was no record of them. Of course, Banshee were _supposed_ to be just myths. But clearly, they were not. Argh.

Finding nothing _again_, she hacked into some hidden history files. Nothing still. She searched for others. Had they all been deleted? Apparently so, or they were never recorded on the Network.

Argh again. She needed that info. So she ordered Myra to stay home. "If anybody requests my position, tell them that I am collecting genetic samples." The girl looked confused, but promised to stay put.

She went aboard one of the Arks. This one, she knew, held the old documents that nobody had bothered to digitize yet. The room was not hard at all to find, and nobody was around. She was very, very cautious.

First, she went through the publicly available documents. Nothing yet again. Why was it so hard to find what she was looking for?

Nacia considered her options (for pretty much the first time that had nothing to do with experiments). Either she could go back and not know for sure if the Banshee were coming, or she could sneak into the hidden documents and risk getting into a lot of trouble. Well, that was a decision easily made. She looked around again, confirming that she was alone, and went up to the locked door.

Of course, there was an alarm that would go off if she were to just open it. But, like almost every other Shee, she carried tools with her. So she carefully hacked through, deactivated the alarm system temporarily, and then entered the room.

Quickly, she went through the papers, careful not to tear any. Where was... oh! She held up one paper. Her eyes, used to the barely lit room, could hardly make out the words, but there they were: this was what she was looking for.

* * *

"Nacia? What are you doing?" Myra asked.

"Comparing the waves that are causing the interference with waves caused by the Banshee."

"Oh. So...?"

The computer finished its task.

"Damn."

It was (adjusting for everything that could mess up the comparison) a perfect match.


	13. Chapter 13

The Lone Shee's reports had been posted on the Network. Nacia read through every one she could find quickly. The Warp was very interesting, but she also wanted to know more about what he had seen.

Luck was with her today, for one of the reports mentioned more than she knew. Shoot. The Banshee were not stupid. They would be able to figure out how to follow the Lone Shee into this continuity and onto this planet.

This was bad. The Banshee were brutal. They did not hesitate to kill. If they got here, she doubted the humans would stand much of a chance.

* * *

She posted her findings on the Network. Several other Shee noted that if the waves from the paper were correct, then the waves they measured now did match them uncannily well. Some hypothesized that maybe another species was copying the waves as a defense mechanism. Others proposed solutions.

Unfortunately, the humans caught wind of the story. How, Nacia never quite figured out, but the fact was that they did. And that it got reported in their newspapers. Making many humans panic unnecessarily.

Really, she could not see why they were so panicked. The Banshee (or anything that might be copying them) had not appeared yet, and panic would not help them. If anything, panic would makes things _worse_.

One of the Elders managed to get them to put out another story and apologize for blowing it up so much. Thank the old gods. They needed to concentrate on stopping the Bansh- whatever it was.

Nacia continued going to the human school with Myra, although she spent much of her time drawing plans for inventions. Not all of her time, though. Humans were too amusing to ignore for too long, and occasionally she _did_ learn something new.

For example, that the 'Physical Education' teacher did not appreciate her using technology to help herself do better. But how was it cheating? She was not as strong as the humans, and she could not run for as long. She was merely keeping up!

* * *

One day, she was reading on the Network when Myra's mother came up and asked what she was doing. She did not use an accusatory tone, but it still unsettled the Shee slightly.

"Reading on the Network," she answered.

"The Network?"

"It's sort of the Shee's equivalent of the Internet," Myra explained, do something on the human Network – the Internet – as well.

"Ah. All right then. What are you reading about?"

"The newest scientific reports, mostly."

"That sounds very interesting. Well, I'll leave you to your reading. Dinner's going to be ready in about an hour." She exited the room.

"I'm finding reports on the internet as well," Myra said once her mother was far enough away. "Human scientists want to work together with the Shee to help defend our planet."

"Is there anything they can do to help?"

"I'ven't the faintest clue! Ask a scientist, not me."

* * *

As it turned out, the humans _could_ help, by thinking of things that a Shee never would. Especially the humans from the 'Creatures Community'. The Shee came up with things to detect any Banshee (hampered a bit by the fact that the two were so similar, genetically and otherwise) and the humans tried to prevent them from being able to come at all. From both sides came inventions whose purpose was to tell whether the things were even Banshee at all.

Nacia excused herself from the human school to have more time for keeping track of events. The Network was more alive than it had been since they were preparing to leave Albia, with wild plans and ideas being presented and supported and shot down and commented on. It would have been so wonderful to watch if it was not because of such a possible emergency.

It was rather unfortunate that there was no way of testing any of the inventions.

* * *

When the transmission came, her blood did not 'run cold'.

If anything, it felt overheated with her anger.

How _dare_ the Banshee mock them like that? They were not lazy; in fact, they had been working very hard to protect this planet they now lived on. Were still working very hard.

"Lazy, stupid Shee. We are very close to your new home now. Did you really think that you could escape your past on Albia by fleeing it? And you probably never had known we were coming in the first place if we hadn't warned you," Myra's computer said as she listened a recording of the transmission. Following the words were the strange, almost barking laughs of the half-grendles and the definitely barking laughs of their pet grendels.

* * *

Nacia was starting to get used to getting so little sleep. She had pulled all-nighters before in the research labs and when working on experiments. Myra she forced to bed – the immature human needed the sleep more.

The Network was always up on her computer now, along with whatever else she was doing, and it was checked frequently, at least several times an hour. But to her, it seemed like little progress was being made. She cursed at her computer again as it brought up an obscure error message.

"Nacia, get to bed," Myra moaned into her sheets. "You need it too."

"When I finish this analysis.."

"No. Now. You're saying weird words, and that means you're either tired or angry and maybe both. Get to sleep."

"When I finish-"

"Did you get any sleep yesterday? I went to sleep with you working and woke up to you working."

"No, but-"

Myra did not bother with words this time. She slid off the bed as the Shee started speaking, and plucked the laptop-like computer from Nacia's lap. Ignoring the squack the Shee made, she dragged her to the bed. "Sleep. Or I'll figure out how to turn your computer off for you."

Laying down, Nacia could not object.

* * *

Dread filled her as she saw that the Banshee-sensors were going off everywhere. And the shields that everyone had been working on did not work that did not harm the Shee either. This was not good.

A deep breath calmed her. The Network was shut down as it was making even her advanced computer lag from the activity. She shut down all her experiments. She pulled up the human Internet and found a site with maps. It was slightly tricky to read the human words, but Nacia managed. Quickly, she found what she was looking for, planned a route, printed it out (humans really needed to figure out how to combine printers and computers – it was so _handy_) and set it aside. After looking up a few more things, she shut the computer down and packed in its case.

Myra came into the room. "What's going on?" the female-human asked.

"Are your parents home?" Nacia asked, ignoring the question. Myra nodded and Nacia led her down the stairs. She strolled into the kitchen and set the computer's case on the table.

"We need to get out of here," she announced. The humans stared at her. After several long moments, she sighed. "The Banshee are coming. I doubt we can stop them in time. They have advanced weaponry. We do not – we are scientists for the greatest part, not soldiers. Our Arks are too low on fuel to go very far, though they have shields to protect themselves from the Banshee. However, those will hurt us too and are only being used to protect our documents and experiments."

"Where are we going?" Myra squeaked, eyes wide.

"I planned a route to a safe area. You can stay there while I move on to the other Shee."

"Now wait one minute-" Myra's father started, but Nacia interrupted.

"First, though, we need to obtain non-perishable food and a method of carrying it. Water filters are also necessary."

"We have those in the pantry already, enough for a while," Myra's mother said. "I thought I'd prepare for an emergency. But aren't you getting a bit ahead of yourself? Are you sure we need to go?"

"_Yes_."

"I believe her." Myra's parents turned to their daughter. "Shouldn't we bring flashlights and sleeping bags and the portable radio too though?"

"Good idea," Nacia said.

* * *

A few hours later, they were on their way. They walked, as the route did not have roads. Nacia brought a hoverboard with her, just in case, folded to a small thing that easily fit in her 'backpack'.

Just before they were out of the city, a loud, deep hum filled the air. They all looked up. Then the ground started shaking slightly, and a large metal ship descended from the skies. Nobody moved as it landed, until Shee-like shapes that were a bit green and scaly came out of them.

Nacia grabbed onto Myra's hand and ran.

* * *

A/N: Insert usual apologies. I guess I got spoiled by my 1 review/chapter, and that discouraged me a bit. I got this finished finally though. Please let me know what you think - even if you hate it from the bottom of your heart. And I'm sorry it's not read over by someone else, it might have a couple mistakes.


	14. Chapter 14

The forest terrain was rough, but Myra ignored it as best as she could, tugging Nacia along behind her. The poor Shee was exhausted. Somewhere behind her she heard her parents, in worse shape since they didn't have gym class.

This way there was a safe house, Nacia had said, back when she could talk. Safe place. They _had_ to get to that goal, or else the Banshee...

Myra stopped thinking that thought.

Nacia pulled her hand. She stopped and turned around. Once the Shee had caught her breath, she said, "You will not find it haphazardly running along. It is along that creek bed." She pointed.

The four of them lowered themselves down carefully next to the small stream. They started walking along it, searching with their eyes for the thing Nacia described, until Myra's father gave a "There!"

Hidden in the soil wall on the other side of the water was what looked like a wooden door covered in dust. "So we have to go across?" Myra's mother said worriedly.

"No. It is on this side." Nacia knocked on the dirt wall next to them.

"...a Shee?" a faint, computerized voice asked. The three humans blinked in confusion.

"Yes, and three humans. They are for the safe house."

"But-" Nacia turned to look at Myra. "What about you?"

"I am going to be continuing to the laboratories."

"With all these things swarming about? You'll get killed faster than a norn in the ocean!"

"So would you, human-girl."

"This human-girl is stronger than you. And can run better. Besides, two pairs of eyes and ears are better than one."

Nacia gave a harsh sigh. "There is not time for arguing. If you want to come, come."

"Myra-" Myra's mother started.

"I'll be okay, Mom." Myra smiled.

"You aren't going anywhere," her father said.

"Dad-"

"Myra's male-parent-"

"That is final."

Myra closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and leapt forward to hug both her parents, and then took off running. Her father shouted after her, but he wouldn't catch up, she was sure. Yes, it was a stupid move, but something in her felt like she should go with Nacia. Really, _really_ felt.

She jumped over a tree root and slipped in the mud. Something wrapped around her wrist as she fell, but it came down with her. Myra blinked upwards. "Oh. Hey, Nacia."

"Hello." Nacia tried to stand up, but ended up slipping again.

"Here." Myra carefully stood up and then stepped over the tree root and offered a hand. Nacia took it.

"Thank you. Now, we need to get moving again, but now that we do not have your parents along, we can travel a much quicker way."

"What's that?"

From the backpack-like think she wore, Nacia pulled out something that looked vaguely like a skateboard without wheels, except it was more pointy, looked to be made of some sort of silvery metal, and had glowing blue lines on it.

"...is that the hoverboard thing you were talking about?"

"Yes, it is."

* * *

The hoverboard was _fast_. Myra clung tightly to Nacia as the Shee expertly navigated around treese. It didn't help that that to steer, the thing tilted under their feet.

But if it got them to wherever it was that Nacia wanted to go faster than on foot, she'd put up with it. As long as she didn't fall to her death first.

"How's this thing work, anyway?"

"I am sorry, what did you say? It is very hard to hear you over the wind!"

"Never mind, I'll ask later!"

The trees whipped by as blurs. There was one green blur – a Grendel? a Banshee? - but it seemed to barely see them go by.

It was late in the afternoon, so soon they had to stop, as it was too dark for Nacia to navigate safely. While they laid out a couple of blankets, Myra again asked about how the hoverboard worked. As expected, she didn't understand most of what Nacia said.

"So... why are you letting me come with you? I mean, I don't mean to put myself down or anything, but aren't I kinda useless in this situation after we get to wherever we're going?"

"It never hurts to have another assistant. Besides, if I do not get to the secret research area in the first place due to lack of sensory information alerting me to the presence of a Banshee, I will not be very useful either." The Shee paused. "Was it not you who was insisting on accompanying me?"

"Er, yeah, but... maybe it was the ride on that thing."

* * *

It took another day and a half of travel to get to the Shee hideout. It should have only taken them one day, but it took half a day to figure out the precise location. A few minutes of testing later, they were in.

The hallway was close and dark, making Myra feel claustrophobic. The Shee guiding them looked sickly, with dull hair and skin that was off-color. Eventually, though, they stepped into what must have been the lab.

It was much bigger in here, with ample room around the tables. The lighting was a little better, as well. Above the tables were bright, slightly blue lights, but nowhere else. Shee and humans were running around, fetching things and typing things and poking things.

Nacia took Myra over to a computer and told her to stay there while she found out what the others were working on. Myra stayed put. She watched everybody running around and wondered what they were doing. None of it made any sense to her.

When Nacia had an idea of what she wanted to do, she had Myra do the boring repetitive plug-in-values work while she did the more interesting (and much more dangerous) work. When all of that was done (three excruciatingly boring hours later), Nacia had Myra watch some of the feeds from the many cameras positioned on the surface within a few miles of the base.

After the first hour, it stopped being anything approaching fun. Nothing was happening. There were no Banshee, or people, or forest animals, or anything but plants and dirt and more plants. The most excitement so far had come from inside the base, when one of the Shee managed to explode something. While the other Shee had valiantly tried to save the experiment, the humans had been the ones grabbing fire extinguishers. Thankfully, nobody had gotten hurt.

Myra scrolled through all the feeds again. Nope. Still nothing.

* * *

Somewhere, miles away from Myra and Nacia, there sat a man.

He sat at a desk with his head in his hands.

The man worked for an array that was now very famous. At the moment, though, he was at home, not at work.

Though it was not necessarily true, the thought that was consuming his mind was that they had invited the current disaster. They had sent out signals, hoping to find intelligent life. And they had gotten exactly what they had wanted.

And now it would kill them.

His young daughter tugged on his hand. It was time to leave for somewhere safe. Had she not been there, had his wife not been behind her, he would not have gone. He would have left the space for someone who had not brought a malevolent species to their planet.

Because they _were_ there, he went.

* * *

"Has there been any activity in the past few hours?" Nacia asked. Myra shook her head.

"There was a squirrel that ran by two hours, thirty-six minutes, and twenty, twenty-one, twenty-two seconds ago."

"Ah. Nothing else."

"Nope."

"That is fortunate. We still have time before the Banshee arrive."

"Uh, you do know this is only some of the cameras, ri-" Myra was cut off as Nacia tugged her hand, accidentally pulling her off the chair. "Aiee!"

"My apologies. You are hungry, yes? Shall we find food to ingest?"

"Yes please."

They still had some of the food that they had packed back at the house, but the base had its own small cafeteria. Myra beamed at the fresh fruits and vegetable – extremely fresh, as they had just been harvested from very fast-growing plants. They sat down together near some humans and enjoyed their food.

"I've always wanted to try bramboo fruit."

"I wonder if these carrots are healthier than ours?"

"Cool, these lemons float!"

And after twenty minutes, it was back to work.

* * *

A/N: Nope, I haven't given up on this thing yet. I _swore_ I would update this month, so here you go. I hope you enjoyed and you should see another update before the end of March!


	15. Chapter 15

Nacia did not allow Myra to look at the reports of the humans who had been in contact with the Banshee. In fact, she did not even tell her about them.

The current picture was gruesome, and Nacia shuddered to think that her DNA was even slightly related to that of the creature that had done this. But it might be useful to analyze the patterns of behavior of the Banshee, so she looked.

The man's abdominal cavity had been roughly sliced open, and his heart and lungs removed. His stomach and intestines were torn to pieces and hanging out. Other organs had been mixed up, and some were nearly unidentifiable because they were so mauled. His ribs were splintered from the force that had been used to pry them apart.

One arm had been ripped off and stripped of fat, flesh, muscle. The bones had even been cracked open and the marrow removed. The other limbs were just messes.

His cheeks had been eaten away at, his tongue was missing, and his eyes had been carefully cut out. They stared from the top of the photo.

What had they done to make their pet grendels so vicious?!

Nacia sighed and closed the picture. They had no qualms about what their pets ate. That much was so obvious even a very young human could say it.

The DNA of their grendels was slightly different from that of the grendels that had been first created. Some had venom in their saliva, some had stronger arms, some had tougher scales, but all were more aggressive to creatures that their Banshee allowed them to attack.

But the Banshee themselves were more mysterious.

What was their goal? Did they want to kill all the Shee? Or did they want to enslave them? Study them? How good was their technology? Was it on par with Shee machinery, or better, or worse, and in what areas?

Nacia sighed again. Too many questions, and no experiments with which to answer them. This was a rather distressing situation.

"What's wrong?" Myra asked her. Nacia started. Had she truly not been paying attention, or was the child-human becoming better at walking quietly?

"Ah..."

"You look kinda like you have a problem you can't solve."

"That would be correct."

"Oh. Thought I recognized that look... anyway, maybe you should take a break. You've been looking at that thing for three hours."

Now used to Earth times, Nacia was unsurprised.

"I often work for much longer than this."

"When you've been awake for two and a half days."

Nacia blinked, then thought. Had she truly been awake that long?

"C'mon, get some sleep. It'll help you think so you can get over whatever you're stuck on."

"Perhaps you are right." Nacia stood up slowly and let Myra pull her down hallways and into one of the cramped dormitories. Nobody else was there at the moment, all working, working, working at their desks and computers. Myra pushed her down onto one of the beds and waited for her to lie down. The blanket that was pulled over her shoulders felt so nice and warm, and soon she was asleep.

* * *

Myra wandered through the base on her own, feeling useless. She was just an ordinary girl. She couldn't code, she couldn't perform experiments, there didn't seem to be much that she could _do._

Well, she could also monitor the cameras some more. It was really boring, but it was _some_thing.

So she watched. And watched. For hours, nothing happened, just as usual.

Then something _screeched_. Myra jerked and nearly tore the headphones attached to the computer out of the socket. The wailing sound continued for a few moments before it ended.

'What on Earth was that?'

She had never heard any sort of animal make that kind of noise before. It was not the screech of a cat, or the cry of a bird, or the wail of a monkey. It had been high-pitched, but it had also seemed to resound_ in_ her.

Myra picked out the part of the recording with the odd cry on it and went to ask a Shee if they knew what it was.

* * *

Nacia stirred awake and sat up sleepily. There was so much noise in the hallway outside. What was going on? By the low murmurs that managed to reach her ears, it was likely not good.

She walked over to the door and carefully look out. Definitely not good, as every Shee had a worried expression on their face. At least it could not be _too_ horrible, as nobody was panicking. Still...

"What is happening?" she asked Myra a few minutes later. The girl's eyes were wide, and she looked scared.

"Banshee."

That did not sound good.

"They're getting closer. I heard one of them shriek while I was watching the cameras."

Once again, it was not good.

"They say we've got three, maybe four days at most before they discover this place."

Nacia sat down.

A few seconds later, she stood up again. Now was no time to be depressed and inactive. She tugged Myra up. Now was the time for work.

She would be working on weapons, as few other Shee were. Myra helped her gather materials, but there was little to be found. They were truly low on any sort of supplies, so they would have to do with what they had.

Within a few hours, Nacia had a basic working model of a chemical bomb shooter. It could certainly be improved a bit, of course; for example, making it so that it did not hurt Banshee as well as Shee. Actually, it hurt all living things. Myra had, for some reason, been overly worried about this, and was not assured until Nacia gave her the statistics for how far the liquid splashed.

After that, it was mostly minor tinkering to perfect the invention. Myra asked why it needed more work, and was not satisfied when Nacia pointed out the inefficiency of its shooting system. She said that it seemed to work just fine, and wouldn't it be better to come up with something else as well? She had wandered off after that, as Nacia had had no reply.

She came back twenty minutes later while Nacia was finishing up. Nacia asked her to test it to see how well an untrained human could aim it and improvised a quick target for her to shoot at. Myra asked her to stand a little farther away from it, though she was certainly out of range.

When Myra shot, the cause of her concern became clear; untrained humans, like untrained Shee, were not terribly good at accurate aiming. Nacia quickly fit a laser sight onto it to help the situation.

* * *

After finding out just how miserable her aim was, Myra decided that she should figure out another way to defend herself against the Banshee. While Nacia was getting started with fiddling with the door, she went to go find information.

It was harder than she thought it would be. There seemed to be confusion about the weak spots of a Banshee every place she looked. The eyes of course, and loud noises, but that was nothing new. The only useful thing she found was that they were slower than she was. They were, however, much, much stronger.

"So I guess I'll just have to run away from them," she said to herself as she went to go check on Nacia again.

Nacia had, thankfully, managed not to break the doors or electrocute herself. Not that Myra had actually expected her to do either, but it was hard not to worry.

The doors were now stronger and were able to be locked more quickly, at least according to the Shee. Myra did not want to have to test it.

Once again, she returned to watching the cameras. Nobody wanted to do it, but it had to be done. She kept her headphones just in front of her ears while she watched the unchanging scenery, just in case another shriek came.

Nacia had just tapped her on the shoulder hours later, to invite her to eat a meal, when the screen changed. Both of them watched, frozen, as a green, scaly creature with reddened eyes and the general body shape of a Shee walked into view.

* * *

A/N: The stats say that three people read the last chapter. Love to all three of you and I hope you liked this chapter.


	16. Chapter 16

The Shee were running around in something close to a panic. The humans stood off to the side so that they would not get hit by anything and watched. They talked after a couple of minutes.

"So, is there anything we can do to help out now?"

"Don't think it'd be a very good idea. They're holding up all the equipment and we might get hit by acid or something. Besides, you know the Shee - they'll probably come up with something at the last minute that hurts Banshee but not Shee."

They all watched for another minute.

"Or maybe not."

"Yeah, shouldn't rely on luck like that. Luck seems to be fond of ducking out right when you actually really need it."

"Could we maybe move somewhere else?" asked Maya. "I mean, if we set up traps or weapons here to catch the Banshee, and didn't activate them until we'd all already gotten out and started to move to another place, then wouldn't that at least buy us some more time?"

"I think somebody suggested that already and got turned down. No, I have no clue why."

"Pride, maybe? Stubbornness?"

"Where would we go, anyway? I don't think they have any more bases close by that we could get to without crossing known Banshee paths or haunts."

"But we wouldn't have to _avoid_ the Banshee," Myra said, "just go faster than them, right? Wait, then they could follow us by scent..."

"Except if we covered it up, maybe."

"It's better than anything else we have at the moment," somebody else sighed. "Let's keep that as the backup plan."

They watched the Shee throw random chemicals together for another few minutes. There was one total explosion, and it was a small, nice-smelling one. The humans collectively sighed again.

"Let's go see if we can knock some sense into one of the Elders or something so we can escape while we can," somebody suggested, and half the group went off to do just that. The other half stayed behind and watched as the Shee panicked some more.

Myra hadn't been sure the Shee were even capable of panicking, at least in a way that looked like panic to a human. She was rather unhappy to be proven wrong like this. What was there to do, though, other than run (which had, from what the other person had said, already been frowned on)? They couldn't hide behind thick metal walls and doors forever. Their food rations were going to run out sometime, if nothing else. And they would probably all go crazy with the boredom of being cramped together with nothing to do.

She went off to join the group that was talking to the Elder. She might as well try to do _something_.

~!~

After more panic, and a _lot_ of talking, the humans managed to persuade the Shee that going someplace else was the best idea that they had for the moment.

As it turned out, the Shee had already managed to whip up something that would help cover their scent somewhere in the middle of their running around throwing random mixtures together. They packed their water purifiers and food and set up the sludge guns and motion detectors. They sent a message to the other Shee base that had been selected as the destination and triple-checked their route. Once everybody had done everything that could possibly be called preparing, they set off.

Instead of moving in one large group, they spaced out into multiple smaller groups to help avoid detection. They kept in contact using little hand-held computers that had the best-encrypted broadcasts on Earth, and quite possibly in the galaxy.

Of course, life being what is was, something was probably going to go horribly wrong. Each group hoped that they wouldn't have to be the ones to be the victims of it.

~!~

"They _changed their schedule?_" Myra whispered. "How come you didn't catch the change? Didn't you have people looking through their data files and monitoring their communications?"

"We can only monitor what information they send on the airwaves," the Shee next to her whispered back. "If the change was announced directly to the Banshee, then we would have no way of knowing."

The Banshee suddenly looked up, and then straight towards the bushes that the small group of humans and Shee were hiding behind. Myra squeezed her eyes closed for a moment in helplessness, and then snapped them open again. The Banshee was laughing as it approached them. This one had a very ugly laugh, like the sound of a deep cough.

Well, they might as well go down running. Myra sprang up and started running. She heard the others moving too, but she couldn't see any of them but Nacia anymore. They had already vanished into the forest.

"Wait!" Nacia gasped. "Let's..."

Myra stopped and felt her heart pounding in her chest and Nacia fiddled with her bag. The Shee drew out the hoverboard.

"Oh, right."

This time, Myra got to drive and Nacia navigated. It actually wasn't as hard as it had looked, although Myra wondered how their feet stuck to the board as well as they did.

"I am having trouble getting a reading from your artificial satellites," Nacia complained.

"You mean the GPS satellites? The trees here are pretty thick... Hold on, how high can this thing go?"

"It would not be wise to try go much further than your height for very long."

"Oh. Well, there goes that idea... Hold on, I'll try to find a clear spot."

It took a while, but she was able to find a clearing large enough for Nacia to find their position and direct them off again.

They managed to do alright for the most part, but just as the sun was starting to go down and they were considering stopping for the day, they stumbled across another Banshee and its pet Grendel. This pair was very fast, and though Myra was doing her best and moving as fast as she could avoid trees, they were catching up. Perhaps Nacia could do a better job of steering, but there was absolutely no time to switch.

The trees were complete blurs now, and Myra was terrified that she and Nacia were about to fall off or slam into something. They zoomed over a large rock and then dove back down to the ground again, where Myra turned them sharply to the left and down into a valley. It didn't trip up their pursuers like she had half-hoped the trick would, but it had at least bought them a bit more distance.

There was a stream at the bottom of the valley. Myra couldn't actually truly _see_ it, but there was an absence of brown leaves there and it wasn't dirt, so what else could it be? She crossed over it and after a moment turned back and headed the hoverboard upstream. Weaving from bank to bank, she got even more distance; the Banshee and Grendel were splashing through the water, slowing them down. When they realized what she was doing and climbed back onto one of the banks, she veered off in the opposite direction.

It was through maneuvers like that that they finally lost their perusers by the time it was too dark to see very well. Myra dropped down from the dangerous speed until they were quietly drifting along.

"Can we sleep in a tree?" she asked. There was no way that she wanted to be on the ground tonight.

~!~

They did indeed climb up one of the trees, although it took some exploring to find a tree with branches low enough that they could just jump to with the help of the hoverboard, and Nacia nearly fell because she had so little upper-body strength.

Myra had no clue how she did manage to get to sleep, but perhaps the long chase had tired her out enough to forget her anxiety and discomfort. Nacia had much more trouble falling asleep than her, though she did eventually drift off.

In the morning, they had a rather nasty surprise. Three Banshee and their grendels were on the ground around the tree, leering up at them. Myra frowned at them. _Now_ how were they going to get to the base?

She sighed and kicked at the tree trunk, knocking bits of bark down. One fell into a Grendel's eye, and it whined and rubbed at it unhappily. Hm. Could they knock out the eyesight, at least temporarily, of the Banshee and their grendels, and use the distraction to start running?

Then one of the Banshee spoke sharply at its pet in a language that Myra had never heard, and it backed a way from the tree a bit. Probably not, then. Besides, they'd have to have very good aim to get bits of bark in the eyes of all of their enemies at once.

A shriek came from a ways away. The ears of the grendels pricked up, and they turned their heads towards the sound. It wasn't like the Banshees' shriek. Myra did not want to think about what had made the sound. Another shriek came, and she closed her eyes.

Another idea came into her mind, and she climbed over the branches until she was right next to Nacia. "Hey, she whispered as lowly as she could, "I've got an idea."

Nacia listened carefully, and then nodded approval. "It is unlikely to work, but the Banshee are also very unlikely to loose interest in killing us before we die of dehydration," she whispered back.

"So we might as well try it."

They carefully edged out on one of the lower, thicker branches, too aware of the stares of the Banshee below them, waiting for one of them to slip up and fall to their deaths. But that did not happen, much to the disappointment of the Banshee.

Instead, Myra jumped, and Nacia jumped after her, and they both landed on the hoverboard that had been thrown out just a second before. Instantly, they were zooming along, and with the element of surprise they had it gave them quite the head start. Of course, they had to get lower very quickly, but it had worked for the few seconds it had needed to work ten feet above the ground.

They weaved through the trees, and Myra was starting to get quite good at it at high speeds. It was still a bit terrifying, but she was getting over that, too. The wind was cool against their skin, the sun was bright in their eyes, and overall it was fun. Besides the whole part about running away from things that wanted to kill them, of course.

Other than that, she really did like it. She still very relieved, though, when the trees started thinning out again and Nacia announced that they were only a couple of minutes away from the next base.

They stepped off the hoverboard as they came to the spot. Myra watched as Nacia tried and failed several times to pull herself up onto a tree branch, and offered to do it herself. Following the Shee's instructions, she climbed onto the branch and then stood up on it. From there, she pulled down on the branch above it and then made a small jump straight upward, pushing down on the branch she was standing on. She climbed back down as Nacia spoke to the computer, and then they were safe for the moment.

After getting a good cup of tea, she asked – after several minutes of thinking about whether she really wanted to know – what had happened to the other members of the group that they had been with.

~!~

She was crying so hard that she could barely breathe. She and her boyfriend were clinging to each other so hard that their arms were starting to bruise and their fingers hurt, but neither one was even thinking of letting go anytime soon.

Not as long as they could help it, anyway. The _things_ might force them apart, but she didn't want to think about that.

They were getting closer now, she could hear them. The sound of claws scraping over metal and concrete was getting louder and nearer, and she desperately tried to stop her sobs. He was trying to quiet himself, too, but both of them were failing. Oh, those things could probably hear and smell them from three blocks away.

She tried to focus her mind on something else. In this she succeeded better. She hoped that her parents were okay. She thought about where they would be right now; she imagined them driving away to safety as the bells that rang the hour in her hometown rang their tune, as rain started falling. Her best friend would be safe as well; she would hole up in the apartment building she lived in. She had always been a fan of that zombie-survival book.

Then the door rattled, and she could distract herself no longer. She stopped crying abruptly, and now the two of them were silent.

It rattled some more, and then burst open. The taller, more human-like one stepped in first, making no sound with its bare feet. It had awful, red eyes, with slit pupils, and scaled skin. It might have reminded her of a snake, but something about it was very different from the creatures that slithered along the ground that kept her from really connecting the two in her mind.

Its pet _thing_ came in afterward. It had a hunched back and looked more like a reptile than its master. It also had pointed teeth. She could tell because it grinned at her. There was venom dripping from the teeth, dripping down its cheek to hit the floor carelessly.

"Have at them," its master said, and watched without care as it dug into its meal.

It ripped out her eyes first, and she knew for the first time in her life what agony was like. Then its teeth sunk into her neck.

~!~

Nobody answered her question.

* * *

A/N: I decided to up the rating to Teen, after staring at the guidelines for a few minutes. I think I may have gone past 'minor action violence without serious injury'. Also, ffdotnet seems to be keeping my original scene dividers now for some reason, so I left them alone. Anyway, hope you enjoyed!


	17. Chapter 17

"I see," Myra said quietly after several minutes of silence.

"Well-" one of the younger humans started, but then she stopped as she suddenly became the center of attention. "We... don't _exactly_ know what happened to any of them. There haven't been any reports either way... So, I think it's more like 'missing in action'."

"That is true," a Shee murmured. "However, for the sake of planning we cannot depend on their being alive."

Myra didn't let those words crush her butterfly-fragile hopes.

~!~

The team of two was silently moving through the bushes. The shadows of night helped to hide them from sight as well as hearing. They skirted around another moonlit clearing and edged carefully down a black and rocky hill for several minutes. Once they had reached the bottom, they stopped to rest.

"Still can't send a signal?" the human asked.

The Shee shook his head. Either the Banshee were doing something to block their devices, or the device was broken. There would be no help coming.

After another few minutes, the human stood up again and stretched. "Well, we should get going again." She gave a small smile that the Shee could barely make out in the gloom.

~!~

He was tired, both physically and mentally. Physically, because he had been walking all day and into the night, and had only just sat down. Mentally, because his companions kept bickering. Right now, it was over how to fix their communication device.

"I am sure that we need to get past a block made by the Banshee," the female Shee (he was horrible with names) argued.

"This error is caused by corrupted files," the male Shee protested. He was the one holding the device, and she was trying to snatch it away.

"You know," he said, "Banshee and grendels have good hearing, don't they?" Both of the Shee stared at him, not understanding his seemingly random comment. He repressed a sigh and tried again. "Don't you think that they might hear you two arguing?" The two of them looked at each other and nodded.

He felt a slight trill of victory.

They started arguing in whispers.

He dropped his head to his knees and let out the sigh.

~!~

It hurt.

Her ankle gave out and she collapsed again to the ground. The human (what was his name? They hadn't shared) knelt down to her level.

"Guess that you won't be walking for a while," he said, reaching out to gently lift her ankle and look at it.

"Of course not," she snapped at him, annoyed. "Do you humans all make a habit of repeating information that is obvious to even a young child?" But she did not pull away as he examined the sprain.

"Some of us, yeah." He grinned at her.

She frowned.

"Anyway, we can't exactly stay still. Here-" and he turned around. "Put your arms around my neck and I can carry you."

She reached out carefully, locked her hands together under (not on) his throat, and waited as he stood up slowly and hooked his arms under her knees.

He started walking again. She continued fiddling with the device that had distracted her so much that she had fallen down the hill. Why wasn't it working?

~!~

"In that case," Myra said, standing up, "what do we need to do to find them?"

"Ah..." another human sighed. "We need to find out where they are, but it seems like the Banshee have set up something that blocks communication signals to and from the devices they're carrying."

"And we can't exactly go out and search by hand," someone else added. "Way too dangerous and time-consuming."

"We're already trying to get through the block, although it'll take us a while."

"Is there anything I can do to help?" Myra asked, tilting her head.

Several people who looked like they were surviving on only coffee were now looking at her with odd smiles on their faces.

...she was setting herself up for more boring, tedious, methodical work, wasn't she?

~!~

The darkness didn't end.

She was peering out into the spaces between the trees. So dark. What was hiding there, and would it be the death of them?

She probably needed sleep. Both of them did. But there was no place safe enough to collapse and rest.

Right now they were walking along a riverbed. That was probably kind of dangerous, but they hadn't fallen yet.

"Wait," the Shee said, suddenly stopping and peering at the bank of dirt next to them. She wondered what he saw that was more than dirt and stones and fallen leaves.

He pushed aside some of the leaves to reveal dirty branches. It must be too dark for her to see what was so interesting from so far. She walked closer. The shadows seemed to deepen...?

The Shee pushed aside more dirt and leaves, looking excited now. She gasped at what she saw: a hole in the wall. But it was small and the entrance was blocked by the roots. How could they fit in or even get inside?

"If you can pull a few of these roots off... we can fit through a narrower space than the Grendels can."

"What about the Banshee?"

"That would depend upon the Banshee. However, they may think that we would take too much of their energy to be worth pursuing, and move on."

"Well, we do kinda need to sleep."

She started pulling.

Almost immediately, she stopped. Roots were _strong_. She was exhausted. There was no question of who would win that sort of fight.

She turned around, walked forward a few steps, picked something up, and went back. She was a human, after all. Why not use the intelligence that her large brain gave her to make use of the world around her, she thought, and started sawing through the wood.

~!~

His heart was trying to jump out of his chest, and he was pretty sure that was not helping them hide. Especially with the fact that a faster heartbeat meant he had to breathe harder as well. At least his companions had finally shut up. It was hard to be thankful, though, when the possibility of your death lay just a few meters away.

They were crouched beneath some thick bushes. The leaves made his skin itch and he couldn't see what was going on beyond the plants, but hearing was enough. The bushes did have one thing going for them, though, because they happened to be growing in the middle of a patch of very strongly-smelling plants. Maybe it was some kind of skunk cabbage? He knew little about the flora of the area. But the leaves _had_ been crushed by what had been, from the tracks, a herd of deer.

The Banshee spoke to its grendel in a language the human couldn't decipher, but the tone was sharp and impatient. He heard the two of them walk off again.

Five minutes later, he rolled out into the open air and confirmed that there was nothing there. The two Shee crawled out after him, looking nervous and stressed. And tired. They probably hadn't had to move this much and for so long of a time in a great while, if ever.

He hadn't realized before how frail they looked.

"Let's move on before they come back," he said. They had to be getting close to a safe place...

~!~

They were resting now. Or rather, the human was resting and the Shee was poking at her device, although by now her attempts were halfhearted. She had been trying all day to get it to work, but to no avail.

He stretched his back and then his legs and winced. His feet hurt after so much walking. So did his legs. And he was starting to get a headache, too. It was time to get some sleep, but they had to find someplace safe enough to let down their guard for a few hours.

The Shee finally gave up in disgust and tossed the device a few feet to the side as she flopped back. He was surprised for a moment, but then _looked_. Although she had not been walking, she looked as exhausted as he felt. The problem with the communications equipment must be more serious than he thought.

"That bad, huh?" he whispered, lying back as well.

The Shee snarled towards the branches arching above them.

He sighed. There was silence for a few minutes. Then the wind died down, and he heard something. Sitting up, he turned his head so an ear was pointing in that direction. He _definitely _heard something. He stood up.

"Come on," he said, and crouched down so that he could pick her up again. She obliged him, looking too tired to resist his strange human mood swings. He picked up the device for her on the way and headed towards the sound.

As he crested the hill, the source came into his view and for the first time all day, he smiled.

He had never seen a more welcoming sight as that stream.

~!~

Mindless, boring busy work it may have been, but if it helped save lives then Myra would put up with it.

Besides, she got to listen to Nacia occasionally breaking into a rant when her frustrations overflowed. That wasn't so bad.

Right now, though, Nacia was quiet, her fingers dancing over the keyboard as quickly as those of any skilled human typist. Her eyes twitched along the screen, reading what she saw and typing more. There was no clacking sound that filled the silence, for some reason, which was faintly disturbing, but Myra ignored it.

She sat back and stretched, rolling her neck with her eyes closed. She opened them again without righting her head, watching Nacia with her head tilted onto her shoulder. The light from the computer screen made her face look ghastly and overstressed in the dark room. Myra sat up again, pushing the unhealthy image from her mind.

The other programmers were coming back in from their lunch (dinner? breakfast?) break, sitting down at their own computers, looking to see what progress Nacia had made. The low chatter filled the room again, and the metal wall reflected the light from the screens around the room, making it appear lighter. What a difference a few people could make. Myra smiled and went back to work.

They were almost done, after all. So close to breaking into the command center of this particular blocker.

So... close...

Nacia paused, squinted, tilted her head, and typed just a little more. She reread what she had just written. Then, as Myra looked on, she carefully sent it.

Myra didn't breathe while the computer executed it, watching the little loading bar with wide eyes.

A message came up. She was too far away and at too bad an angle to read it. She didn't have to.

Nacia gave the smile of someone who had just beaten a tough opponent.

~!~

The night had been slept through in extremely close, cramped quarters, but it had also been slept through safely. Nothing had disturbed them, and they had gotten proper rest. Now the Shee was wrinkling his nose at the dirt all over their skin, clothes, and hair.

"We can take a shower or something when we get to a base, I hope," the human said, and then went to wash her face off in the river. He sighed and started fiddling with his device again. She nearly inhaled water when he made a happily excited sound, already guessing its meaning. She stood up and spun around. "It's working?"

His grin was answer enough. Finally, they could get help.

~!~

The two Shee stopped squabbling all of a sudden. He whirled around, expecting something horrible.

Both of them were staring at the device with complete shock on their faces. Slowly, they raised their heads and looked at each other, and then tried to snatch the device from each other at the same time. He sighed, walked over, and plucked the device away from both of them.

"What's going on?" he asked in a flat tone of voice.

"It's working again!" they exclaimed at once.

He blinked and then thought about that statement for a moment. Once his brain had finished processing it, he handed the device back over wordlessly and watched as they sent a distress signal with their location, for once working together instead of against each other. He filed the memory away.

They would be safe.

~!~

For whatever reason, his companion had kept poking at the device that had frustrated her so much. He made no comment on it and kept walking. And walking. And walking some more. The forest looked so much the same by now, how were they going to get out?

He nearly fell as he was suddenly kicked. "Hey!"

"Be quiet," the Shee snapped at him, but not as annoyed as usual. Her fingers were moving quickly over the device.

"Oh, did it suddenly start working?"

She ignored him.

He stopped walking and sat down.

She slid off of him and curled her legs to one side, intent on the screen. He watched as she almost frantically moved her fingers over the screen, her eyes flickering to and fro across it. After a few minutes, she suddenly stopped, and then set it down.

"Well?"

"I have sent a signal to the nearest base that should communicate the idea that we are in need of assistance," she said, every word carefully pronounced.

"Ah. That's good then." He leaned back on his hands. "So we just wait here then?"

"Yes."

They sat in silence for several long minutes.

"...so, do you know how to play 'I Spy'?"

~!~

"We have three signals already," Myra reported, already sending the data to the rescue teams.

"In such a short time? I wonder if there should be more, then," the person next to her mused. "I mean, if _they_ responded so quickly, you'd think that the others would as well..."

"Perhaps they gave up after concluding that their devices were no longer functional," Nacia said. She was typing again. "I will search for any more devices that are not actively signaling."

Myra looked at her for several moments, and then went to go get more tea.

~!~

They sat together at the edge of the river, waiting, before he suddenly twisted his head and looked up. She followed, but saw nothing. Then, very faint under the noise of the water, she heard the sound of leaves crunching. She felt her heartbeat speed up immediately. The adrenaline was already being released into her body.

She jumped up. Who cared if someone was coming to help, that sound was far too heavy and blunt to be a human footstep. She grabbed the Shee's hand and took off running. The dirt was soft and slippery, and it flew up onto the hems of their clothing. Not to mention it was keeping a record of their path. As soon as she saw a piece of bank that was low enough to easily climb onto, she veered off towards it and clambered up, dragging her companion after her.

There was definitely something chasing them. They could hear the footsteps much more clearly now. She tugged faster, ran harder, knowing that neither of them could outrun the thing but still trying. They ducked under several feet of low-hanging branches, unable to see for a few moments before straightening up.

Then they ran into somebody.

She blinked up at the person from her position on the ground very slowly. Even more slowly, she turned her head to look at the other people.

Oh.

The grendel came dashing out of the trees. One person shot at it immediately and it reeled back with a sharp cry of pain. More shots followed, until it was dead beyond all argument.

~!~

The two Shee suddenly whipped around, pale bluish faces going even paler. They scrambled from their sitting positions back up to their feet, and he rose after them. When they started running, he followed. Soon, though, he heard breathing behind him, and footsteps crunching dead leaves.

Help wouldn't be in time, would it?

They all stopped very suddenly, having just come to a ten-foot drop that had been impossible to see. Something burst from the bushes behind them, and he whirled to see what it was, though he already knew. Those red eyes, that scaly green skin, the claws that protruded from warped hands. Its Banshee, taller and thinner and infinitely more gracefully, followed more calmly. It smirked at them, at how the two Shee were crouching near the ground out of terror.

"Go ahead, have fun," she (it had to be a she, its voice was so _high_) said, gesturing. It advanced, slowly at first, but then it suddenly gained speed and pounced the female Shee.

He had no clue what he was thinking. Actually, he probably was not. He grabbed the thing and dragged it off of her. It twisted back towards him, growling. He could see its absurdly pointed teeth, glistening with saliva.

It grabbed his arm and _crushed_. The bones crunched and he screamed, kicking the thing, trying for an eye. Then it bit the hand that came close to its face, snapping it right off, ligaments and muscle trailing afterward.

Its claw came towards his throat next.

~!~

She was _still_ fiddling with the device that had probably just saved them. He stared up at the clouds for a while and then closed his eyes. He didn't doze, or slip close to sleeping, just laid there and listened.

She gasped and sat straight up again. He opened his eyes, and looked towards here. What had gone wrong _now_?

"We need to-" she started, standing and grabbing his hand, but as she pulled him up she fell again with a small cry of pain. "We need to go away from here! I found a Banshee signal, and it is far too close!" She tried to pull herself up again. He did her and her sprain a favor and helped lift her onto his back again.

"Which way?" he asked. She pointed. They went.

Too soon, there was rustling from the area behind him, and he broke into a sprint. There was no way he could keep the pace up for long, but he was hoping, very vaguely, that he could last long enough to outrun the thing.

His breath was short now, and he didn't think he could go much further. As it turned out, he couldn't, his legs collapsing underneath him in a small clearing. The Shee crawled off of him and shook his shoulders, demanding that he report his condition. He just nodded, not even hearing her exact words.

The Banshee laughed, looking amused as it strode into the circle clear of trees. It laughed. This one had a horrible, grating laugh, like someone had rubbed its vocal cords over a cheese grater for a few minutes. Its eyes gleamed as it opened its mouth again.

"Hold it right there!" someone shouted, and all four of them turned to stare as several humans wielding bizarre guns suddenly emerged from the forest.

~!~

"Of the three signals we first received, all have been successfully retrieved," the rescue head reported. "The first was from a male Shee and female human. By a stroke of luck, they literally ran right into us as they were being chased by a grendel. The thing was shot, but the Banshee escaped. Besides being covered in dirt, they checked out fine. There might be a few minor psychological issues, but it's what you would expect from people who just spent three days not knowing if they were going to be alive in an hour.

"The second was from one male human, a male Shee, and a female Shee. The Shee are fine, though in shock mentally, and there might be some issues from them. That would be because we got there just a few seconds too late... their human companion was getting torn apart. He apparently was trying to protect them, and the grendel turned on him. Once again, I'm sorry to say, the Banshee escaped.

"The third was from a male human and a female Shee. The Shee had a sprained ankle, but that happened during the first few hours of this whole thing. Other than that, he's got a few bruises on his knees and just below his throat, and they've both got some scrapes, but they seem fine. They ran from their initial spot, but they were at the place we caught up to them at for several minutes, and we traced the signal from their device. _This _time," and here he stopped to grin, "we caught the Banshee."

"Very good," one of the Elders murmured. He looked like he was in shock. All of the Elders did. Actually, so did everybody.

Myra felt like that for a few moments, too. Then, when everybody started moving off again, she pushed Nacia to the sleeping area and forced her to lay down and start catching up on three days' worth of sleep. Once that was accomplished, she walked back to the computer room and shut the door quietly behind her. Everybody was resting, except for the rescue teams heading out to the places where they'd manually detected a device. She had the whole room to herself.

Silently, she moved over to her computer and pulled up news reports from around the world.

She didn't want to get disconnected.

~!~

A/N: Longest chapter yet? An update that only took just over three weeks? I think I'm getting back into this. And discovering that killing fictional people can be fun. I almost killed more of them, but the part of me that never kills characters won out.

Fun fact: the first 500 words were written by hand before Japanese class. The last 1500 words were written last night from about midnight to one am, and this was beta'd at two am. From what other people say, that sounds like a disaster, but it reads okay to me.


	18. Chapter 18

Nacia shook her head as she sat up, her long hair flying about a bit. She had slept for nearly a day. So long... and with work to do, too. But she knew that the human - Myra - was right. Shee needed sleep, and could not subsist on merely tea alone. It was unhealthy, and becoming ill was one of the things she very least wanted.

She combed her hair out quickly and made her way to the dining area. After eating something so quickly that she had no memory of what it even was, she walked to the computer room. The room was mostly dark, with only a few of the screens lit up. Sitting in front of one of those was Myra, curled up with her arms around her calves. At first, Nacia thought that she was sleeping, but as she moved to a different angle, she could see that her face looked depressed. Huh... she had not thought of the effects of what was happening would be on the human's mind. Perhaps it was a bad idea to let her come along in the first place.

"What is wrong?" she asked, tilting her head as she moved closer.

"Ah..." Myra looked up at her. "Nothing, really. It's just kind of depressing what's happening."

Nacia could now see that Myra had opened up a news site. A quick glance over the headlines set her temper off. "Let me see that!" she snapped as she shoved herself over Myra's lap to see properly. She read them again, more carefully, and her fists trembled on the desktop.

"Nacia...?"

"Those... those..." She could not even come up with a word to describe those _things_. Was there even a term to describe such awful, vicious things?

"Nacia?"

"Those damn Banshee... why are they doing this?! Do they enjoy the sight of blood so much...?" She straightened up suddenly, spun around, and started to stalk off.

"Nacia!"

"What?!" she yelled, twisting around again. Her breath was coming out more shallowly than it should have.

"Calm down, would you?" Myra was climbing out of the chair. "Where are you going, anyway?"

"Do not follow me," Nacia hissed.

"_Where are you going?_" Myra walked closer. Nacia could not see her face properly with the glow of the screen behind her.

"It is not necessary for you to know, human-child!"

Myra's eyes widened and her head snapped back.

Then her eyes narrowed a little, her eyebrows tilting.

Then they narrowed much more, her eyebrows tilting the other way.

And then she ran forward and slapped Nacia hard.

Nacia blinked very, very slowly, staring at the floor. A hand rose to her cheek, which _hurt_. Then her head slowly turned up, to look at Myra. Myra had never hurt her before. She hit hard. She did not look like she had just knocked someone over, though. Rather, there were tears at the corners of her eyes and she was trembling slightly. She crouched down and pulled the still-stunned Nacia back up again.

"Are you okay?"

Nacia nodded.

"Where are you going?"

"To see the captured Banshee."

"Oh. I'm coming with you."

Those words again. Nacia started to open her mouth to argue, but closed it before she got very far into the motion. There was nothing she could do to stop Myra, and it was her own decision anyway.

"Just one thing," Myra said. "Call me by my name. I get enough flak from being a kid. I don't need my species in there too, making me sound like an idiot."

~!~

They wound together through the overly-complex maze of corridors that led towards where the Banshee was being kept. The Shee called it a security feature. The humans called it absentminded construction, from the way it seemed that the Shee had kept forgetting what they were trying to do while the built. Either way, it was incredibly easy to take a wrong turn, but Nacia seemed to know exactly where she was going, even without carrying a map. Although they had just been fighting, Myra followed her closely, trusting her to get them in and out without starving to death. She tried to keep track herself, but the lighting was pretty much nonexistent and the walls were completely identical, so that did not help very much.

But, finally, they made it through. A couple of Shee and three humans were there as guards, though they let the two of them through very easily. Myra vaguely wondered why. They went through the door into a room that was much more brightly-lit, and she squinted. When she could see properly again, she watched as Nacia stomped right up to the tied-up Banshee.

For a few minutes, none of them said anything, Myra watching, Nacia glaring, the Banshee looking. Then the Banshee cracked a smile and said, "Little Shee, what is it you want from me?"

Nacia tensed up, her fists clenching. "_Why_," she hissed. Myra could barely hear it.

"Why what?"

"Why...! Why do you _enjoy_ destruction and killing?! How can you... how can you do such horrible things?! Why did you crush our norn eggs and destroy our machinery and kill our scientists?!"

The Banshee was still smiling. "Your weak norns, your useless machinery, your idiotic scientists." It cackled. "I'm surprised they didn't just take them captive. _Such_ a pity."

"Huh?" Myra tried to think of a reason why a Banshee would take a Shee captive. Then she jumped as she realized. "You mean to splice with grendels?"

"Perhaps. Perhaps not." The Banshee rolled its (her? his? Which it was Myra still could not tell) head and reopened its eyes lazily. "I suppose it would depend on the captors."

Nacia was still trembling.

"**Why**?!" she screamed all of a suddenly, starting forward and jerking back.

The Banshee's expression changed quickly to a snarl. "Because we _like_ it, little Shee. We like causing chaos among you as you like creating machinery and species. We like to see you bleeding, in pain, watching as we destroy the things you labored so hard to create. Some even like to hurt humans as well."

"Like you?" Myra asked.

"Mm... not particularly. My favorite grendel liked the taste of your blood though." The Banshee cackled again, but this time it had a harder edge, and when it looked up it leered at her. Nacia snarled more viciously and spun around, fine silvery hair spinning outwards as she turned. She stomped forward and reached out to try and drag Myra along as well, but Myra shook her off. Nacia pulled more insistently, but Myra ignored her.

"Why do you hate the Shee so much?"

_That_ seemed to surprise the Banshee. It drew back a little, and had no answer.

"Is it because it's their fault that you exist at all? Or because they're so similar but still too different? Or is it not hatred at all...?"

She stared at the Banshee, waiting for her response. Slowly, the corners of its lips started to turn up, and then all of a sudden it grinned and started laughing again, with a horrible grating laugh. Myra cringed and tugged gently on Nacia's arm. Nacia wasted no time getting them out of that room, leading her down the hall and away from the awful laughs. Thank goodness the door seemed nearly soundproof.

She could not see again, after moving from the bright room into the dim hallway. Why was there such a difference in the light?

~!~

Nacia led Myra back through the twisting hallways until they reached the same computer room they'd been in before. It was still empty, and now was completely dark. She knew the layout well enough to pull them through the maze of chairs and desks and electronics without tripping, and took her over to the place they had been sitting last time. She let go of Myra's hand and then swiped at the computer's mouse angrily to get the screen lit up, and then plopped down in the chair and curled up, until even her feet were under her robe. Then she buried her fingers in the air on either side of her head and fisted her hands. It hurt a little, but she ignored it. This usually worked when she was frustrated on a project.

"Don't hurt yourself!" Myra exclaimed.

"I am not."

"Then what are you doing?"

"Merely releasing anger and frustration in a non-harmful manner."

"...that's 'non-harmful'?"

"Yes, it is." She pulled a little harder and concentrated on the pain, recollecting her focus.

"It _really_ doesn't look good..."

"Myra. It is fine."

Maybe it was her voice, and maybe it was Myra's name, but the other left her alone after that. Some minutes later, Nacia sat up again and shook out her head, feeling much calmer. She carefully smoothed down her hair again and then stood. It took a moment to find Myra, and then the two of them went to find something that they could do. The answer they got from an important-looking human was 'enforce security'.

Myra groaned and brought her hands up to her face.

"What is wrong?" Nacia asked.

"It means _more_ boring work, doesn't it?"

~!~

As it turned out, it actually did not. 'Enforce security' actually meant 'make the doors lock properly and reinforce them', which was not boring at all (although it was a little odd that the doors had had nothing to keep the Banshee out for so long). Nacia made an attempt at trying to explain how everything worked, and even if Myra only understood half of it, it was still very interesting. And it was rather fun to operate the power tools needed to cut the metal that was to be used for the 'reinforce' part.

Then Myra had noticed that the lights were flickering, and if they were fixing the doors why not fix the lights at the same time? And then Nacia had found that some of the main wires for supplying electricity to this part of the base were too easily tampered with, and so they had to cover them up properly. And by the time that was done, the rest of the day had managed to pass and it was time to eat some food and go to bed.

When it was morning again (not that anyone could know it without a clock) Myra woke up, ate breakfast, and then headed back to the computer area. It was still empty of other people and Shee, so she had the room to herself as she turned a computer on and started to search for an answer. The Banshee had not been terribly helpful, after all, just laughing at her like that.

So why _did_ the Banshee hate the Shee?

She searched the Internet, and after half an hour, gave up in frustration. Then she tried searching the Network, and found speculative essays. But those _still_ did not answer her question, so she tried some different search terms. The ones that seemed most promising brought up pages of results, though, so she sighed and started opening tabs. Some of them she could close right away, seeing that they would not help her, but some did start out looking helpful, and even some of the useless ones that were a little more basically written were just interesting, and once again Myra was thankful that one of the first things the Shee had created on Earth were automatic translators from their language to all human ones. That actually worked. Human programmers were still trying to figure them out.

By midday she had not even gotten a fourth of the way through the results, and Nacia had found her. "What are you searching for?" she had asked, and then, with only a small frown, starting helping.

Even with Nacia's help, Myra was about ready to start tearing paper to shreds by the time she noticed that she was hungry. Nothing. In all those pages and pages of results, _absolutely nothing_. Did the Shee not actually care at _all_ about why the Banshee hated them and how it might be reconciled? Then again, why care when it was history and irrelevant, or when it was a danger to your life and needed to be stopped first, before studying it?

Myra groaned and decided that she should give up on this line of reasoning for the moment. Besides, Nacia was asking her to help go run a bunch of simulations on the computer for a new idea that she had. "How will that help?" Myra asked as the program loaded up.

"It will let us test the feasibility and effectiveness against the Banshee."

"Oh. Right. What is your idea, anyway?"

Shee computers were so fast! Myra watched with wide eyes as the computer ran through the situation 300 times and gave data that only Nacia could figure out. But the Shee frowned and shook her head. This idea was not good enough, too hard to build or not good at its objective. Myra fetched her some tea to cheer her up. In the dining room, somebody was saying that a meeting was being called, so on returning she told Nacia where they were supposed to go.

The meeting was livelier than the ones that Myra had attended before. Perhaps there was good news this time? One of the Elders stepped up onto a stool, and the crowd quieted almost instantly. He took in a deep breath, and every other person in the room, human or Shee, held theirs.

"There is a plan," he announced simply, and the room burst into chaos.

"What's the plan?"

"Does this one have any hope of actually working?"

"Was it run through a simulation?"

"What is it?"

"How long will it take us to carry out?"

"Is it a really complicated one?"

"Seriously, what are we going to be doing?!"

The Elder coughed. Silence fell again.

"The plan involves a human invention. This invention is called a 'firework', and they are very loud mid-air explosions – loud enough to cause discomfort to both a Shee and a Banshee, as well as a sensitive human."

"But what are we doing with the fireworks?" someone asked.

A human stepped up. "They will be used to herd the Banshee into a valley that we found – they'll want to move away from something so loud. In the valley, with them all gathered together like that, we can lay a trap, either ahead of time or after they're all there. We still need to work out the details, but it seems feasible enough as long as we can put the fireworks together and procure hearing protection. Not terribly expensive, even. So, cheap, simple, effective. Anybody want anything else?" He looked around. Nobody spoke up. "Any questions, then?"

Myra raised her hand. When the man nodded at her, she stood on her tiptoes to help him hear her.

"How are we going to make them?"

* * *

A/N: ...or maybe I'm not getting back into it. I actually finished this a couple of weeks ago while waiting for a plane, it just took a while to get it beta'd. At least I have the next chapter half written... Anyway, hope you all liked this.


	19. Chapter 19

That sparked a conversation that went on loudly for several minutes. People offering up ideas, or knowledge of how fireworks worked, or earplugs for when they were put into action. The voices gradually grew louder until it was impossible to hear a normal speaking voice. Myra sighed and sat down next to the wall, having nothing further to contribute. Eventually, the din settled down as one woman emerged as a fireworks expert (or at least 'a person who has a clue about how they work').

"What is the mechanism that powers a firework?" an Elder asked.

The woman tapped her chin. "Let's see. Fireworks are made of gunpowder in a paper tube with a fuse."

"Gunpowder?" asked a Shee.

"It's also called black powder... it's made of charcoal, sulfur, and potassium nitrate. In fireworks, the charcoal usually has aluminum instead of or in addition to it to make it brighter."

"Ah... There is a problem. We have no potassium nitrate."

"You can make it from sodium nitrate and potassium chloride. I think you can even replace it with the sodium nitrate."

"...I am fairly doubtful that we have either one of those two compounds in our laboratories here," said another Shee.

"Um... how about nitric acid?"

"Yes, we should have that," answered another Shee.

"And sodium carbonate?"

"We use it for electrolysis."

"Neutralizing the nitric acid with the sodium carbonate should give you sodium nitrate. Now, potassium chloride... that's a little trickier. Usually, that's extracted from sylvinite, or from brine from certain places, such as the Salt Lakes. But I don't know if there's any deposits anywhere near here."

"That can be looked in to."

"Now, the sulfur..."

"We have hydrogen sulfide. Elemental sulfur can be extracted from that."

"Okay. And the charcoal is relatively easy, seeing as we're in a forest. We shouldn't have to worry about aluminum, seeing as we're using the fireworks for the noise and not the light or beauty. Now, the way the fireworks work is that the fuse ignites a bursting charge – the tube of gunpowder – which causes it to explode and ignites 'stars' sprinkled through the gunpowder in the rest of the shell. A simple star is like a sparkler... sparklers are made iron or steel powder, a fuel, an oxidizer, and a binder such as sugar or starch. Potassium nitrate is usually used as the oxidizer, and gunpowder as the fuel. The container for this whole thing is usually pasted paper and string."

The people who were not going to be helping to plan the production of the fireworks were able to leave. Myra left. Nacia stayed. She wanted to help figure out how to obtain the raw resources needed to produce fireworks. They were not going to use up all of their hydrogen sulfide for the making of a few fireworks... and it probably would not be enough, in any case. Raw sulfur would be much better, if they could find it.

Unfortunately, even after they had straightened all the kinks in the basic production process, they still could not actually start producing the fireworks. There were several reasons for this: a good number of people needed sleep and were unable to start producing dangerous explosives right away, they still needed to mine more material to get started, and only a few people still actually knew how to make sure they wouldn't explode before they were supposed to.

Also, they could not agree about the color.

"They should be red! It's the color of blood!" said one girl.

"Green for their precious grendels," argued a Shee.

"Blue, as our skin," said another.

"Purple!"

"Yellow!"

"No, red!"

"They should be blue!"

"Purple is prettier!"

"Why is everybody shouting?"

"Yellow!"

"You don't even have a reason for picking yellow!"

"It's a nice color."

"Green!"

"Red! Red! Red!"

"Blue!"

"Green is more representative!"

"How about white? Isn't that a nice compromise?"

"Reeeed!"

"Purple!"

"White is boring!"

"A rainbow!"

"Yes, why not all of them?"

"Red!"

"Green for the planet they are destroying!"

"Blue for their destroyers!"

"I like purple!"

"Come on, people, white or rainbow."

"Yellow! Doesn't everybody love it?"

"Red!"

"_Will all you idiots just __**shut up**__ already?!_"

Everybody shut up.

"It doesn't _matter_ what color they are! We just need the damn fireworks, okay? Make them whatever color you want them to be when your turn is up to make them. Make red or purple or green or blue or yellow or white or whatever mix of colors you want, just get them produced. That's the important part!"

Even that had not stopped the arguing.

"They should be round. It's simple and effective."

"Nonono. They should be impressive! Star-shaped!"

"Like a waterfall..."

"How about clovers? They're green, like the grendels!"

"Spider-shaped ones!"

"Why not just simple round ones? Wouldn't that be easiest?"

"Clovers would look better."

"Stars! Stars! Stars! Stars!"

"Round ones would be best."

"Waterfalls are nice... very nice..."

"Clovers are awesomer."

"Awesomer is not a word. You lose. We'll have stars!"

"The kind that starts out fast then goes slow. That would look pretty."

"I do not lose! Clovers are better than stars!"

"Round ones are the best."

"Round is boring. Stars have shape! And clovers are not impressive."

"Yes they are!"

"Really pretty."

"Spiders!"

"No they are _not_. Stars are."

"Waterfalls are graceful..."

"But not waterfall fireworks! Clovers!"

"Stars. And yes, waterfall fireworks are graceful... well, as graceful as fireworks get, anyway."

"Round ones are the most graceful of all, in their way."

"No, they aren't! They're even less graceful than waterfalls! Clovers, on the other hand..."

"So, so pretty..."

"Clovers aren't exactly graceful. Anyway, we're taking about fireworks! When did grace enter into the argument?"

"When you all resisted simple round fireworks!"

"_**That's enough already!**_," a sensible person screamed, stopping all the arguers. "We just need fireworks! Noisy, loud fireworks! Why can't any of you _get that_ already? We don't want the Banshee admiring our work; we want them running from them! Make them however you want, in any shape, it doesn't matter because we just want their noise not the visuals."

There was not much more to argue over, so from there on out it was rather straightforward to make the fireworks. It took a while, and the Shee tended to complain – the entire process had to be done by hand, because machinery had the slight risk of causing a fire because of the electricity needed to run it. They also were rather annoyed about the questions the humans asked several times about how well their clothing could carry a charge that might become a spark. But they managed to put their feelings aside well enough to work with the humans and start making the fireworks.

Soon, they had a couple of test ones made, and they dragged the Banshee out to conduct the test. Myra watch Nacia's grin as the Banshee – the only one without hearing protection – screeched in pain from such a loud noise so close to its ears. They really _were_ loud, much louder than the ones Myra had seen during Independence Day celebrations. Good thing the hearing protection was several times better than human things, too. They had to shout to hear each other, even though they were standing extremely close. (Maybe they should add radios?)

Full-scale production was then started as the plan was made. A trap needed to be laid, but what kind? A few humans suggested rather violent possibilities. Myra frowned at them, but what really made her shudder was the look in the eyes of some of the Shee as they described some of the experiments that they would love to do on the Banshee. Those were the eyes she would expect on an insane murderer in jail...

"Maybe we should just capture them, get their DNA, and then pretty much just keep them prisoner until they die naturally?" somebody suggested.

"We should capture them, get their DNA, and then shoot them," someone else muttered.

"Wouldn't it be more productive to do things like test their reflexes and senses before we shoot them? Might as well get the data while you can," a third person said.

"The wretched things should just be blown up on the spot!" yet another person said, pounding their fist on the table.

A couple of hours passed of people throwing pros and cons of various plans back and forth from one side of the room to the other. Myra started to fall asleep and stopped listening to the words, just hearing the noise and not the meaning. Just before she fully fell into sleep, somebody shook her, waking her up, as an Elder stood up to declare the solution that had been agreed upon.

"We shall wait until all of the Banshee in the area have been herded into the valley. Once they are there, we shall activate a device that gives out a powerful high-frequency sound, incapacitating the Banshee. Humans wearing high-grade hearing protection shall then enter the valley and knock them unconscious. The Banshee will be brought to a secure facility. What shall happen to them afterward will be decided at a later date."

Sounded good to her. Myra dragged herself out, found her bed, and went back to falling asleep.

~!~

The next day, everybody started to help put the plan into action. With something that they could finally do to fight against the Banshee, they were happy, whistling or singing as they worked. Working from a map that the Shee had provided, they began the preparations for the fireworks. Some laid the groundwork for the fireworks. Others built fire-prevention precautions. Myra tagged along with the group that went down into the valley to lay the trap.

They found the area that the Shee had marked on the map as being a good spot. It was a large clearing, with a lot of leaves covering the ground. It would be easy enough to hide something under all of the leaves, and there was enough space for many Banshee to stand together. It had several good routes leading to it that the Banshee could follow. Everybody agreed that it was a good place.

Myra dug a little hole to put a speaker in, and then covered it up with a very thin layer of dirt and many leaves. When she stood up and looked around, it was indistinguishable from any other random piece of ground in the clearing. The speakers would lay dormant until they were needed. Then their batteries would start powering them, making one of the worst sounds ever. Each of the speakers was tested at a low volume, and Myra clamped her hands over her ears each time. No wonder storekeepers used them to keep teenagers away.

When the group returned, they were all enlisted to help set up fireworks. They needed a lot to make sure that the Banshee would always be close enough to be bothered by the noise, and to accurately herd them to their final destination. It was not the easiest work that she had ever done, but Myra clenched her teeth and refused to complain. She imagined what the Banshee would look like when this plan worked. She remembered the stories she had read of the horrible things that the Banshee had done, and attacked her job with blazing determination.

At sunset, she returned to the base. After a quick dinner (carrot, apple, one of the weird purple thingies from Docking Station) she found Nacia. The Shee was installing radios and microphones in the hearing protectors. "Can I help?" Myra asked, plopping down.

Nacia eyed her. "You have nimble fingers, yes? Then you can put the radios in. I'll show you, first." It was not too difficult to insert the radios. It was just a little tedious, which was probably why Nacia was happy to foist the job off onto her. They worked together for the next hour in a comfortable silence.

~!~

After a week of furious work, they were ready. The charges were ready, the fireworks were positioned, the speakers still worked, and there was hearing protection for everybody.

The next stage of the plan was rather boring. Myra watched the cameras again and kept track of how many Banshee were in the area at the moment. They wanted to wait until all or nearly all of the Banshee would be affected and herded. She only took breaks when her eyes started hurting from staring at a screen for hours on end, or her muscles started to get stiff from such a long period of disuse.

This stage took three days. The Banshee eventually came together in the area, perhaps to find out where their favorite Shee had gone. Myra did not know, and did not care.

Her heart was beating so hard that she could feel it. She fit the headphones firmly over her ears, tested the radio with Nacia, and then got into position. Her instructions were to wait on a high branch on a tree near one of the main entrances to the valley. As the Banshee ran by, she would provide updates. Later she might get to trigger the speakers.

It took a long time to get started. Myra adjusted her position. She had been up here for at least half an hour already. Commands and questions and confirmations passed through the radio channel and entered her ears. It sounded like they were almost ready, but she was getting a little bit impatient. Surely they had already been prepared? She shifted again to relieve her numb tailbone.

A loud noise startled her, and she nearly fell off the branch as she twisted around to see the source. The first firework was fading out high above the trees.

* * *

A/N: Let me know if the science at the beginning is too hard to understand.

Creatura: Thank you for the reviews! They made me smile.

Igluix: Where the norns are will be shown soon. As for my horrible update schedule - sorry. I keep getting distracted (in this case, by another original novel - I'm doing NaNoWriMo again this year). I do plan on finishing this story, though, and within a few months. And on revising the earlier chapters sometime. Thank you for liking this enough to want me to finish it, and giving me the kick I needed to write the last few hundred words this chapter needed.


	20. Chapter 20

One of the benefits of her perch was that she got to see some of the fireworks. If she was on the ground, the trees would block out nearly all of the sights. As it was, she only missed most of them.

Banshee and grendels and even a few squirrels were constantly running along the path beneath her. She counted them (well, the Banshee and grendels, anyway) and made little marks on a sheet of paper attached to a miniature clipboard. Comments buzzed through the headset, but she only paid them half a mind.

It was _working_. The thought alone made her nearly giddy enough to fall off of her branch.

After a while, the stream of creatures started to slow down, and eventually, it seemed to stop. Once a good five minutes had passed without her seeing anything, Myra reported her numbers and waited for more instructions. When she was told she could go a head and help round up the Banshee, she started climbing down quickly. A little too quickly, perhaps, as she jumped down earlier than she should have. She nearly fell over from the sudden pain waving through her feet, but it went away after a moment, so she began jogging.

Soon enough she found another human, and then they were joined by another, and then two more. Slowly the group grew, fireworks still decorating the skies, until they nearly at the trapped clearing. There they paused for a moment, to get a final confirmation that all the Banshee were in the trap. Once they had it, several people pulled out controllers and flipped the speakers on.

The hearing protection was really good. Myra could not hear even the quietest buzz from the machines. When they entered the clearing, though, it was obvious the machines were working: every Banshee and grendel in the clearing was collapsed, most with their hands over their ears. The humans set about handcuffing them with handcuffs that were made to be especially strong. Even Myra could help – the Banshee were in so much pain, it was almost no effort at all to bring their hands away from their ears and around behind their backs.

Somebody started going around with a needle, injecting the Banshee and grendels with something that made them drop into unconsciousness. And when the truck arrived, it was easy enough to throw the unconscious bodies up into the truck.

~!~

Nacia stared into her cup of tea.

The Banshee and their pet grendels had been captured. Their DNA had been sequenced and carefully locked away, in a place that few people knew about. The plan had worked; all that was left now was to figure out what to do with the captives, and that could wait. (Preferably a very long time.)

However, there _must_ have been a more efficient method. But she could not think of one with the materials that they had available. Perhaps she simply needed more sleep. Or more tea.

Myra plunked down into the seat next to her. "How are you doing?" she asked. "You feeling okay? You look kinda sick."

"I am fine," Nacia said. "I am simply pondering the efficiency and adaptability of our method of capturing the Banshee."

Myra stared. She was beginning to recognize it as the stare Myra used when Nacia said or did something that Myra thought odd.

"...we captured them already though, right?"

"Yes..."

"...so why does the efficiency matter that much? I can understand the adaptability part – we can't assume that everybody else has access to the same resources as us – but that's kind of easy, isn't it? The point wasn't the fireworks, it was the noise... Anyway. We'll figure that out once we've all caught up on sleep."

Nacia sighed. "I suppose."

"Well, I'm going to bed. See you in the morning. I mean, whenever I get up again." Myra was jumping out of her chair again halfway through the sentence, and she waved as she disappeared out the doorway. She was rather energetic for someone going to sleep.

Nacia took a sip of her tea, and almost spit it out again. It was horribly cold now. She rose to get another cup.

As she walked though the base, she noticed that the atmosphere had changed, to use a human phase. Not the composition of the air, the balance of nitrogen versus oxygen versus argon versus various other gases, but rather, the feelings between people. Instead of hurry, desperation, hope, there was relief, happiness, and oddly enough, exhaustion. Although everybody had been tired before, now they seemed to show it more. Now that there was no more danger, there was no more reason to hide it.

She poured another cup of tea in a quiet kitchen and curled up on a metal chair. She let her thoughts slip away from her for once, sipping at her tea every so often. Somewhere else in the room, a human clock ticked. When she took another sip and discovered that her cup was empty, she set it aside.

_Tick. Tick. Tick._ Nothing like the silent atomic clocks of the Shee.

All of a sudden someone was tapping her shoulder, and Nacia was blinking awake. Whoever it was walked off when she sat up again. She rubbed at her eyes for a moment before glancing up. According to the clock, only twenty minutes had passed. She set her cup in the sink and then left the room.

If she had managed to fall asleep curled up on an uncomfortable metal chair, she really did need sleep.

~!~

Myra woke up, ate breakfast, and then spent two hours hunting Nacia down. She finally found the Shee sleeping in some room off of a corridor that Myra had not even known existed. Nacia slept very deeply, though – even when Myra shook her, she would not wake, so she had to leave her alone.

By herself, she went back to the computer room. It was completely empty of any other people or Shee – everybody was probably off celebrating still, taking a break for the moment.

For the moment. Their job still was not done. They had only captured a few Banshee; there had to be a lot more out roaming the world away from this place. Nacia might have been a bit hasty in worrying about the adaptability of their plan, but it _was_ a worry. And now that she had something in her stomach and some sleep in her mind, Myra was worrying.

First things first. How were other people doing?

She ended up spending a few hours surfing both the Internet and Network. The Network was, of course, practically buzzing with activity, as the Shee here reported their success and others replied to it. On the Internet, however, there was no mention of it at all. Just reports of overrun towns and death and announcements of plans that had almost no chance of succeeding. Myra flicked through them all quickly and then went back to the celebration on the Network. She wanted to feel happy right now.

Nacia walked into the room after those few hours, still blinking a little from sleepiness. "Good... afternoon," Myra greeted her, glancing at the clock on her screen. Nacia nodded back.

Once she had drunk a cup of tea, Nacia sat down next to Myra. "How do things look?"

"Same as ever. Not so good. We're going to have to figure out a way to help everybody pretty soon..."

Nacia sighed. "However, with so many different colonies of Shee and humans in so many different places..."

Myra tapped her fingers against the table as she thought for a moment. "Why don't we go investigate the Banshee base here? There is one, right? And since we captured most of the ones here, it'll be pretty empty, won't it? We might find out their plans there, maybe even what Banshee in other areas are doing."

Nacia blinked at her. "That is a good idea. Let us go propose that to one of the Elders."

With everybody still celebrating, it took them no time at all to get a meeting with one of the Elders. To Myra's surprise, he approved their not-really-a-plan immediately, and even suggested that the two of them be the ones to do the investigating. Nacia had agreed, and all of a sudden they were back in the hallway.

"Let us go get ready, then," Nacia said.

"Wait a moment." Myra grabbed onto Nacia's sleeve. "Um, isn't it a little dangerous for just the two of us to go there alone?"

Nacia blinked at her. "What is a few Banshee to all the ones that we have already gotten past?" she asked.

"Um..." While Myra tried to wrap her mind around that logic and come up with a response, Nacia started dragging her off. "Uh... weren't we usually running away from those Banshee? Not heading straight into their base?"

"We will bring weapons," Nacia replied lightly.

Somehow Myra was not much of a match for the enthusiastic Shee, and almost before she knew it she had a laser... gun... thingy (she was not quite sure exactly what it did, just that it was generous about bad aim) and a backpack with supplies, and she was powering up the hoverboard for another ride.

At least this part was fun. With the wind rushing past her ears when she went fast, it was almost like she was flying.

When they got to a more heavily forested area, they slowed down. As they steered lazily through the trees, they talked quietly. "Where do you want to free first?" Myra asked.

"The area near your town, of course."

"Why?"

"Our ships are there."

"Oh! That means we could use the stuff in there! Like... hook up a sludge gun to a creature detector modified to detect Banshee or something, right?"

"I... was thinking more of collecting our research, including our norns and ettins."

"Oh. That too, I guess."

Myra sighed and ducked under a particularly low tree branch.

"How far are we along now?"

Nacia's robe rustled as she pulled out some little machine that beeped lowly as she checked out the map of the area. "About nine-sixteenths of the way."

"A little over half? Does it clear up more further on?"

Another beep. Myra felt Nacia's nod against her shoulder.

After another ten minutes of hoverboarding (what _was _the verb to use? Hovering?) along, the trees started to thin again. Eventually they reached a point of 'field with some trees in it' instead of 'forest', and they were zooming along again, the scenery a colorful blur.

When they reached the Banshee base, Myra felt herself tensing up. But there were no Banshee to be seen. After they checked the area, they stepped down off the hoverboard and Myra slid it into her backpack. Now all they had to do was get in.

Which was a little easier said than done, of course, but not by too much. There was a nice, thick, alarmed door that stood between them and the inside of the base. However, Nacia's computer could apparently do more than just check maps – it helped to hack door alarms, too. Then Nacia stepped back while Myra kicked the door open. (Why could it not just have a handle? Or open automatically when unlocked? ...well, it did keep out the weak Shee.)

They advanced slowly, taking their time and keeping a watch for any Banshee. The base was empty so far, though, and Myra started to get even more nervous. Surely they had not captured all the Banshee? Had they moved on to a safer-seeming place? There was no dust settling on surfaces, so they had to have been here recently, at least.

They decided to start cautiously opening doors. These were unlocked, so they just had to push a button to get them to open. The first room was mostly empty, with a metal table running down the center that was littered with screwdrivers, screws, washers, and a single spoon. The second was a kitchen, although a very ill-equipped one – no stove, a small sink, and a pantry full of already-prepared food. The third, fourth, and fifth rooms all seemed to be meeting rooms, with too-bright lighting, a table, and some chairs. The sixth was empty, and the seventh was a storage room. It looked like it would be fun to explore, but since they were looking for plans, they moved on.

Before she hit the button for the eighth room, Myra heard footsteps. She froze up for a moment, before realizing that the footsteps were walking around the room that they were standing in front of, not coming down the hallway. Nacia tugged her hand and led her away from the door. She leaned up to put her lips to Myra's ear, and whispered very quietly, "I suggest that we move on quickly. The sign above the door states that it its a weapons storage." Myra nodded several times, and they moved on to the next room over. Now that they knew that there were still Banshee here, they listened at the door before pushing the button.

After a good hour and fifteen minutes of searching, they stumbled into a computer room. Nacia's eyes gained a little sparkle, and Myra stayed far away over at the door while Nacia booted up one of the Banshee computers and started searching. For a few minutes, there was nothing but the sound of typing and clicking as Myra leaned back against the wall, counting the seconds in her head. Then Nacia waved her over.

"I have copied this over to my computer, could you confirm that it is the information that we were searching for?"

She hit a button on her little computer to translate the document, and Myra scanned the text. "Looks like it to me. Now let's get out of here before-"

The door opened.

* * *

A/N: I'm sorry. I honestly forgot about this story for a few months, and then a couple of weeks ago I remembered and started on this chapter. I'm keeping the document open at all times so I don't forget again. If I don't update in a couple of weeks, feel free to start poking me.

Igluix: Good to hear it~ I'm Allekha on DS (as well as here, now).


	21. Chapter 21

Myra whirled around to see a Banshee standing in the doorway. In the few moments she had as it jerked back in surprise, she dove behind a desk, dragging Nacia with her. A heartbeat later, the computer that they had been standing in front of was a twisted, half-melted amalgam of metal and glass and plastic. She started crawling quickly, Nacia right behind her, as the Banshee advanced. Stuffing themselves under a random desk a ways from where they had started bought a little more time.

"Did you bring a weapon?" Myra breathed in Nacia's ear.

"A weak one," she breathed back.

"Give it to me."

"What!"

"Unless it's really hard to aim or use or something. I can run a lot faster than you. So if I can distract it for a few minutes while you run, and then catch up..."

Nacia frowned. After a few moments, though, when the Banshee knocked over a nearby chair, she pulled out from somewhere a small version of her earlier laser gun and pushed it into Myra's waiting hands. "Do not get harmed," she whispered with a very serious look on her face.

Myra flashed a smile. "I won't. I'll be careful."

Then, heeding the footsteps coming near, she started crawling again, leaving Nacia behind her. When she reached the end of the desk row, she carefully peeked out, before moving around to the space between the desk and the wall. The Banshee was getting even closer now – probably less than ten feet away now. She stopped breathing, double-checked that she was ready to fire the gun, and moved into a crouch.

A few seconds later, she stood up.

As fast as she could, she aimed in the general direction of the Banshee, fired, and dove out of the way. A laser burned the wall behind her as the Banshee howled in pain. After a few moments of crawling, Myra cautiously peeked out over one desk. The Banshee was rubbing its shoulder. Its eyes seemed to glow the color of blood. Myra aimed again and hit it in the stomach before crawling off again.

For a few minutes, they fought, Myra hiding behind desks while the Banshee, too tall to fit itself behind the desks easily, was forced to stand. However, it was quick; after the initial two shots, Myra found it difficult to land more. And she did get burned once on her side. She did her best to ignore the wound.

When she saw the white edge of a robe slipping out the door, she smiled to herself. And then started when the door opened again and Nacia threw something in. It hit the Banshee. With the Banshee turned away, Myra took the chance to burn the Banshee on the head. (It was a weak gun. It could not hurt the Banshee too much, right?) Then she scrambled around the desks to make her own escape from the room.

Nacia grabbed her hand. Together they started running towards the exit. Behind them, Myra could hear the clank-clank-clank of the Banshee's boots against the floor. "We _are_ going the right way, right?" she asked as they spun around a corner.

"Yes, yes," Nacia replied, struggling to keep up.

Another door opened, the one to the weapons storage they had passed before, and another Banshee stepped out. Nacia said a word that Myra was fairly sure was a curse in... Shee-ish? Myra ducked as she passed by the Banshee. There was nothing to do but keep running.

There was another corner, and then another, and there was at least three pairs of feet behind them now. Myra did her best to ignore them. Suddenly there was the door that led out. She hit the button at nearly full speed and waited, heart beating frantically, for the stupid door to _unlock_ so she could push it open, which she did as quickly as possible. Much quicker than the first time, actually (perhaps it was the adrenaline?).

Run run run and there was the hoverboard. She picked it up as she slowed down again and turned it on. She stumbled over it trying to board, but she succeeded on the second try. Nacia's arms tightened around her waist, and she kicked the hoverboard into as high a speed as she thought safe. Behind her the door banged open again, but she did not look back.

The field became a greenish blur. Myra did have to slow down when they started approaching trees again, but since she could still hear the sounds of pursuit behind her, she still kept going as fast as she could without crashing into anything. Well, mostly trees, but it was harder to keep your balance when you were instinctively swerving around blobs that turned out to be rocks on the ground.

Where to go, where to go? Go back to the base? Would that reveal its location to the Banshee? But at the same time, they could get help. Maybe they should lead the Banshee around randomly for a while and hope that they could lose them, but maybe they could not. Argh.

"Nacia!" Myra shouted. "Where to?"

For a few minutes she waited, ducking under a couple of tree branches and swerving around a really big trunk. Just as she thought that her voice had been lost to the wind, Nacia answered.

"To the base."

Myra nodded and sped up a touch. The sounds of the... whatever the Banshee were riding now had to be really loud, to hear over them roar in her ears. She shook her head. Right there she had nearly flipped them over. No distractions. She narrowed her eyes more against the cold sting of the the wind and forced her mind to focus on getting back to the base.

Wait a moment.

"Nacia!" she screamed again. "How do we get back? I don't know where we are!"

Nacia's arms moved around a little, and all of a sudden there was a computer screen in front of her chest and a chin on her shoulder.

"Turn to the right approximately 32 degrees."

Myra made a turn. She tried to keep it halfway between 15 and 45 degrees.

"Go forward as straight as you are able to for approximately 400 meters, and then turn left approximately 67 degrees."

"...can't you just tell me when to turn? I can't eyeball distances that well when we're moving really fast."

Myra felt more than heard the sigh. And a few seconds later, she felt a sharp jab as a chin hit her shoulder again, this time much harder. She turned.

That was how they made there way back, Nacia giving rather unhelpful instructions and Myra steering. Their path was zig-zaggy. Myra wondered if it was to throw off the Banshee or to avoid landscape features that would be difficult to maneuver through or both or neither. Well, even if it was not the intent, it did seem to be losing the Banshee; Myra could barely hear them anymore, and only if she listened hard (and had slowed down for an obstacle).

And then all of a sudden they were back at the base, and Myra pulled up so fast that she and Nacia tumbled backwards to the ground. "Oww..." Myra sat up and rubbed her back where it had slammed down. "Nacia, you didn't tell me that we were so close. I would have slowed down a little."

"My apologies," said Nacia. She was turning her arm around, probably making sure it had not been hurt. "I assumed that you were more aware of our present location." She reached over for her computer, stood up, and started brushing the dirt off of her white robe. "I shall keep in mind in the future that you are not as location-aware as I am."

"Thanks." Myra picked up the hoverboard. "Now let's get inside and we can start figuring stuff out."

She looked around nervously. No sign of those Banshee.

"Well?"

"Nothing. Just making sure that they haven't followed us..."

Nacia glanced around too. "I do not sense them."

"Yeah, so let's go in already before they get here. If they get here."

With one last look around, they reentered the base.

~!~

While Nacia downloaded the data onto one of the computers, Myra made tea. She was getting pretty good at it now, after living with the Shee so long and being sent on so many tea-fetching missions. They probably would have run out of the leaves long ago, if it was not for the plants that provided a new crop every day or few. (There was also a plant that made a kind of cream. And one that grew _biscuits_. Honestly.)

When she returned, Nacia was typing away and frowning at the screen. "How is it?" Myra asked. She set the two cups down on the table and peered over Nacia's shoulder. "Anything useful?"

Nacia shook her head. "Not yet. I need time to sift through the data for the most relevant files."

"You do that."

Myra entertained herself for a little while with the non-depressing parts of the internet. Somehow, people still managed to upload cute cat videos, even in the middle of a small apocalypse.

~!~

Once she had found a promising file, Nacia waved Myra over. Myra leaned over the back of Nacia's chair to read, after Nacia ran it through a translator.

"This... isn't this basically a plan detailing exactly where they're going to take over first and what has higher priority and what areas are less intersting?"

"Basically, yes."

"That's... that tells us who to help first, right?"

Nacia nodded. "We can analyze who will receive the most forces and who will be attacked first versus who has the best or most supplies to decide who is in the most danger of being taken over by the Banshee. This particular document does not help us with the towns that are currently under Banshee control, however."

"It's better than nothing. Saving people who are still alive should come before towns full of people who aren't there, right?"

"I suppose." She wanted her research.

She opened another document and found it to be a record of weapon stockpiles. She made note of the contents and moved on to the next file. And the next, and the next again. After a couple more minutes of searching she found what she was looking for: a record of all areas the Banshee had invaded and what exactly had happened to them, recorded in sickening detail.

The next document noted where there was particular resistance to the Banshee. Nacia made note of this as well.

"Go and eat your lunch," she told Myra.

"Okay," Myra said, leaning back onto her own feet again. "I'll bring you something computer-friendly to eat." She left the room, and the door clicked shut behind her.

With a few keystrokes, Nacia started uploading the entire collection of documents to the Network, making comments on the more useful ones. As the computer confirmed that all of the files had been successfully uploaded, a brief smile tugged at the edge of her lips. The Banshee may have had force and strength on their side, but the Shee had _technology_. And the cooperation with humans.

With a team like that, they would _not_ lose.

~!~

While the Shee sifted through and analyzed the data that she and Nacia had found, Myra volunteered to watch security feed again. It was as always, mind-numbingly dull. She was worried about seeing Banshee again, but they seemed to have either fled or not followed the two of them to the base. When her shift was over, she breathed a little sigh of relief as she left the room. Now, she should get some lunch (dinner? Breakfast? When was the last time she had paid attention to the time?) and meet up with Nacia again.

Myra chewed on a carrot and heard somebody yelp as a justanut exploded a little earlier than expected. Really, what were they going to do?

Well, they might as well start with the easier places, right? Places that had easy access to the ingredients of fireworks. And what else made loud noises easily. Perhaps some places could hook up really loud speakers? Or what about firecrackers? Hm...

She finished her food quickly and headed back to the computer room (was it just her, or was she spending more time in here than she did sleeping?). She found a notebook sitting on a table in the corner with a pen on top, and carried it over to a computer so she could take notes. Bringing up Google, she typed in 'really loud noises' and proceeded to slog through the results. After a while of trying different search terms and looking through many search results, her notes were:

_Speakers_

_Explosions – firecrackers? How loud are they?_

_Thermoacoustic devices? (Nacia should know what they are?)_

_Um._

_Lightning isn't something we can induce_

_We aren't going to start flying jets..._

_Could we use like sleeping gas or something? Tell everybody to stay underground... maybe if you monitored the areas with the dispensers and only released it when they went by... idk._

"Myra?"

Myra tilted her head up to see Nacia. "Hi."

"What is that?" she asked, blinking at the notes.

"Ideas." Myra handed them over.

"Hm... explosions would not be terribly practical. However-"

"Well, it depends on where you are, doesn't it? I mean, I don't know if there are any Banshee in the desert areas where there isn't much to burn, but surely some places you could just pull up some grass or something?"

"We shall see. That is for the inhabitants of each area to decide. Although, airborne poisoning does sound like it could be useful. Of course, it would depend on the delivery method, however..." Her voice fell off as her eyes glanced upward. "I had not thought of that. Certainly, it could be used in areas that are known for sure to contain Banshee, without the risk of being attacked."

"That's good. If anything's useful, glad to have helped."

Nacia was still looking up. After another few moments, she brought her head back down. "A meeting will be held in five hours and thirty-six minutes. Shall I present your ideas, or would you like to do so yourself?"

"If you want to do it, go ahead. You're the smart one, you can add on more, right?"

Nacia nodded absently as she walked off.

~!~

Five hours and forty-seven minutes later, Nacia was standing up at the meeting. Myra, already bored, let her head rest on her crossed arms. She would have fallen asleep there, probably, except that Nacia's talking prompted a lot of discussion, and for the Shee this seemed to mean talking over each other in excitement. So she merely dozed a little while letting her brain pick out random words from the discussion.

This went on for several hours before it started winding down. With a yawn and a roll of the eyes, Myra stood up, found Nacia again, and went to go get dinner (rather, some meal – who knew what time it was).

"Were you able to listen to the discourse?" Nacia asked. "You appeared to be sleeping."

Myra shrugged. "A little. I didn't get much."

"I admit, little of it was relevant to you, however, there was one particular point that I would expect that you would find interest in hearing."

"There's something that you think I would like to hear," Myra restated. "So what it is?"

"We shall transmit information to all of the Shee and humans over the planet, but the Shee and humans here shall also start taking more action. The first city that we wish to take back-"

"-is my hometown?" Myra guessed with a grin already spreading across her face.

"In fact, we already have a plan," Nacia said, nodding. "As we have access to limited resources from this base, we are unable to build a whole production line of robots. A human girl's nimble fingers would be a decent substitute."

"When can I start?" The grin was now firmly in place.


End file.
